You Gotta WORK
by Rosetta Stoned
Summary: AU/POV: Ino Latest Chapters: Ino's boss demands a special task from her. Scummy new bf gets kicked to curb. Naruto reveals his past. LEMONS!
1. Chapter 1

**AN**: So this is not my first fanfiction. I have some others that kind of went no where and I ditched the account in attempt to get away with them. I want this one to go somewhere, and I'm thinking it might. I was really carving to write an AU, and this will be my first. I know that in most AUs the last names aren't changed, but I wanted to make mine stand out a little. Just know that the names are all anagramed which means the letter are all the same, they are just rearranged. (: I know, its abnormal but who cares? So yea. Read. Review. Done. Tell me what you like, and what you don't. I like _constructive criticism_. I want at least 10 reivew before I post the next chapter.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters thereof.

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My name is Ino and I've got big dreams, I always did. Ever since I was a little girl I knew exactly how I wanted to live one day. I used to play fashion model in my mom's clothes, and house with all my dolls. When I was a teenager, my favorite supermodel was Naruho Sakura. She was the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen. She was thin and pale with perfect skin and a pair of overwhelmingly bright, green eyes. It didn't matter that she was shorter than most models, or that her hair was pink, or even that she was only nineteen. She was everything every girl wanted to be; everything I wanted to be. She was my hero. I knew one day I would live just like her with an amazing job, a gorgeous body, and an outrageous lifestyle. Back then it all seemed like it was going to turn out perfect.

But then one day I grew up.

Now I'm twenty years old, and I live in Tokyo, Japan. My dreams of being a supermodel have been put on a slight hold. When I left college I realized if I wanted to make it in fashion I had to work my way up to the top. So I will thankfully take my place at the bottom of the fashion ladder as runner girl, or at least that's what I'm aiming for. . . For now.

- - -

I sat in the twelfth floor lobby of Sakura Kiss Headquarters in Tokyo Japan. Sakura Kiss, was quite obviously the agency in which Naruho Sakura worked for. It was run by the greatest fashion designer of all time: Hachiu Sasuke. Not only was Mr. Hachiu my idol of the designer persuasion, he was also married to Sakura. I was here for an interview with Mr. Hachiu. If all went well, I was going to be hired as runner girl for the greatest fashion duo of all time. I could hardly breathe I was so nervous.

"Mr. Hachiu will see you now." Called a woman standing in the doorway.

"Hai."

"C'mon, he hasn't got all day." She was of medium build, with milky skin, and shallow purple-gray eyes. The tone of her voice didn't match her un intimidating appearance. "Mr. Hachiu is a very busy man."

"Yes mamn." I said scrambling through the door behind her with my bag over my shoulder.

"So you're going to be the new runner girl?" She turned her face to me as we walked down the corridor hopefully leading to Mr. Hachiu's door. Her voice was condescending almost. She didn't seem like someone I wanted to work with.

"Yea-I mean yes mamn." I sputtered in response

"Well, I'm his assistant, Ugyha Hinata." She turned her body as we reached the end of the corridor. "You'll be working for me."

"Working for you?!" I cried. I didn't even want to work with her, how on earth was I going to deal with working _for_ her? "But I thought I was going to be working for Mr. Hachiu." My heart felt heavy.

"In theory you will be." Hinata said as she gather a magazine and a glass of water with three perfectly square ice cubes off her desk which was placed near a big dark wood door with a small black plate on the front with big gold letters that read 'HACHIU'. "You'll be working for Mr. Hachiu through me." She tilted her head to the side with a sharp smirk on her face.

"How does that work?" I cooed feeling awed by being just a doorway away from one of my idols.

"One moment." She nodded as she opened the big dark wood door to take Mr. Hachiu his things. I tried to peek into the room, but directly on the other side of the door seems to be nothing but a big window.

I looked around the small foyer. It consisted of two chairs, a couch, a desk which seemed to be Hinata's, and a water cooler behind the desk. There were plants by window wall behind Hinata's desk, and a small table with a neat cascade of Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan magazines. Sakura was on every cover.

I walked over to the couch and took a seat. I felt like I was in the presence of glory. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes to relish the moment. I picked up a copy of last month's Vogue that was in the middle of the cascade. It triggered an avalanche of all the magazines on the left side of the table. Four of them tumbled to the ground.

"Crap." I hissed to myself as I scurried to pick up the fallen magazines. When I set them back, one on top of the other, the magazines on the right side of the table slid out of place. This time seven of them fell off the table. "Oh my god!" I scooped up the magazines into my arms and set them on the table.

I began to try and stack the magazines back the way I found them, when Hinata walked back through the door with an odd, stern look on her face. "Miss Kanyaama, Mr. Hachiu is ready to see you."

I had to blush as I stood up from the mess of magazines. She stepped to the side as I opened the door and made my way onto sacred ground.

Oh my god. There he was. Hachiu Sasuke! Sitting just a desk away from me – looking right at me! I was just six feet away from him, I could barely breathe! I stumbled across the office to the chair on the other side of his desk.

"I hear that you are interested in being the new runner." He said as I took my seat.

"Yessir." I said eagerly setting my bag next to my chair.

"Are you prepared for that kind of position?" He said giving me his signature cold stare. His black eyes smoldered at me through the frame of his blue-black hair. He was as gorgeous as any model. I lost my words in his eyes.

"Ah. Yessir." I nodded enthusiastically. I had to regain my train of thought.

"Are you really sure?" His voice was flat.

"I'm positive."

"Alright." He slid a small black cell phone across his desk. "That is your phone. When it rings, you answer it." He looked at me from across the desk. "When you're given an errand, you run it – and quickly." He nodded. "Prepared to be worked harder than any model in the world." What an odd statement to make. Models had it rough.

I felt like my skin was on fire. It seemed like his stare was so cold it was burning me. The whole world turned black and there was only me and Mr. Hachiu sitting face to face. I felt a panic coming on.

_Zzzzz. Zzzzz. Zzzzz._

The silence was broken by a stammered buzzing noise, and the world came back into view. I tore my gaze away from him and looked at the phone vibrating on the desk. I could still feel his eyes on my face. My mouth must have been agape and my eyes must have been a big as marbles.

"Well, answer it." He coaxed.

I picked up the ringing phone and flipped it open. "H-hello?" I said softly into the mic. I felt like on the other side someone was going to grunt at me. 'I know what you did last summer'.

"I need three lattes and fifteen pairs of boots from Neji. Go to him, he'll know what you're looking for."

"So am I hired?" I said softly to anyone who was listening.

"You got the phone, didn't you?" Hinata said sharply on the line.

Sasuke nodded.

I wanted to jump up in glee, but I couldn't show my immaturity in front of these two. I still managed to grin at Sasuke dumbly.

"I believe you have some work to do." He said as he turned away from me in his tall leather chair.

- - -

I nodded eagerly and made my way out the dark wood door, and then the other. When I got outside the building, I was off to find Neji. I knew the brand well. I'd passed the shop a million times my whole life, and only stopped to press my nose against the glass and gawk at the beautiful clothing, accessories, and footwear I could never afford. This time I could actually go inside and purchase things! Before I left the office, Hinata equipped me with the company credit card and instructed me how to handle this trip.

When I got inside I walked up to the checkout counter. No one was behind it. There were seven or eight people meandering around the store. One of them was sitting in a chair in a sitting area, probably waiting to be brought a pair of shoes. She was a plump older looking woman. In her arms was a small yapping dog. It's hair was longer and shinier than most girl's hair. This dog was obviously spoiled. The dog was staring at me and barking, and the woman didn't seem to even flinch. She was talking in the direction of the shoe shelves. I turned away from the scene because the dog was making me uncomfortable.

I leaned on the counter and tapped my fingernails on the woods. _Clickity-click. Clickity-click. _I looked back in the direction of the dog and the woman to see a tall, tan, blond haired man standing next to the woman with an open box of shoes in his hands.

"Mamn, we only have a size 6 in that color."

"That's perfect, I wear a 6." She said in a jolly tone.

"Mamn, we just tried on a 6. It didn't fit." He said shakily. It didn't sound like he was scared, more like he was stressed.

"No, no. It must have been marked wrong. Let me try those on." She said taking the box from his hand.

The man shook his head as he turned away from the woman and headed in my direction. He took a deep breath as he reached the counter. His hair was messy and his tie was crooked. The front tail of his white button up shirt was sticking out from under his argyle sweater-vest. This woman must have had him running ramped. By the look on his face I could tell he was stressed.

"Can I help you?" He said as he made his way to the back of the counter.

"Uh, I'm looking for Neji." I said in an almost asking tone. "I'm from Sakura Kiss."

"Ah, he's not in right now, what can I do for you?" He said. Even his voice revealed his stress level.

"Uhm, well actually I really need to speak with him, and fast. Mr. Hachiu is expecting me back soon." I said feeling sorry for adding to his stress.

"He should be in soon." He said in a breathy tone.

"Alright I guess I can wait. . ." Our eyes met for a moment over the counter. They were such a beautiful icy blue. I could see the tiredness in his eyes. I could almost feel his pain. I worked in a shoe store at the mall when I was sixteen. I decided then that retail surely was not for me.

"This shoe doesn't fit! It's labeled wrong, as well! Bring me another pair." The woman with the dog called from the middle of the store.

His tore his eyes away from mine, giving me a face like he almost didn't want to walk away. "Mamn, I promise that is a 6." He called to her as he walked towards her. A chill overtook me as the wind from his walk hit me. I wasn't sure if it was cold or if it was the image of his eyes lingering in my mind. I credited it to the temperature of the store. It was practically frigid.

I didn't pay much attention to the conversation the man was having with the large woman, all I can remember is that it ended with her storming out of the shop. He scurried back over to the counter after she left, almost as if he was looking for cover. He looked even more stressed than before.

"Mr. Yaguha is going to kill me." He muttered to himself as he took his place behind the desk once again.

"Tough job?" I said trying to spark up conversation.

"Toughest." He sighed looking up at from the computer screen he was clicking away on.

"I just started with Hachiu today, myself."

"Oh that'll be the death of you." He gave me a surprised glance.

"Really? I've almost know Yaguha to be more of a tyrant than Hachiu." I said.

"Maybe, but I just run the shop, you're the runner, aren't you? That's why you're here?" He looked back up at me again.

"Yes." I said skittishly.

"Well, then you're going to be worked." He perked his eyebrows at my reply.

"Well you look like you have it so easy." I was becoming defensive. I wasn't entirely sure why. "At least I don't have unruly customers to deal with."

"You're right." He smiled kind of softly at the computer screen, but I think he was smiling at me. The smile soon faded and was replaced by a frown. "I am so tired!" He cried laying his head on the counter.

I felt more pity in my heart for him. "Well. . . I need to get to the coffee shop. Mr. Yaguha is taking too long and I could get these shoes from you, right?" I asked feeling some generosity building in me. "Maybe I could pick you up a pick-me-up from there." I smiled down at me.

He glanced up at me with a smile spreading on his face. "That would be amazing of you." He was grinning.

"Well, if you get all these boots ready for me by the time I get back: it's a deal."

"Got it." The man smiled taking the small piece of paper out of my hand.

"Alright, see you in a few minutes." I said making my way out of the shop.

I came back a few minute later and there were fifteen boxes stacked behind the counter waiting for me. I walked into the shop and up to the counter. The blond haired man put the conversation he was having with a customer on pause and scurried over to my side.

"Ah, thank you so much." He said taking one of the lattes out of my hand and taking a gingerly sip.

"You're welcome." I smiled. "And thank you for getting this all together for me."

"You're welcome –" He took another sip. "Uh, I don't think we exchanged names, mine is Naruto." He set the cup down and stuck out his hand.

"Mine is Ino." I took his hand and shook it.

"Well, nice to meet you, Ino." He nodded as he dropped my hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Naruto." I smiled even bigger. Something about this man was very charming. I could feel my cheeks growing pink.

_Zzzzz. Zzzzz. Zzzzz._

Damn, the phone. "Hello?" I said answering it quickly.

"Where on earth are you?!" Hinata shrieked on the other line.

"I'm getting the latte's right now!" I lied.

"Well get back here, pronto!" She demanded. "Mr. Hachiu needs those boots immediately!"

"Yes mamn. I'll be there!"

Naruto looked at me with a smirk on his face. "I see that duty calls."

"Sir, I'm looking for a size 6." A woman said as she walked to the counter.

"As does your's." I smiled as I gathered my bags. "See you another time, Naruto." I waved as I headed out of the store. I said I'd see him again, although I probably wouldn't. I wished that I could, but more than that I wished I wasn't going to return to the office to a boiling Hinata, on my first day. Needles to say I made my way back as quickly as possible.

- - -

When I got back to the office, Hinata was in fact boiling. She was more than boiling, she was brimming. "I'm sorry Ms. Ugyha! I was waiting for Neji, and he was taking too long. So I had to get the boots from a salesman –"

"A salesman?" Hinata gasped. "Let's pray he got the order right." She sneered down at the bags and began rummaging through them. "Everything seems to be in order here. And where are the lattes?" She asked.

"They're right here." I said pointing to the three cups I had set on her desk when I walked in.

"These are barely scolding." She sneered again.

"I'm sorry, getting the shoes took so long. . ." I said.

"Excuses." She sighed taking one of the cups in her hand. "Get those." Hinata nodded toward the bags of boxes of shoes.

Once again I lugged the bags into my arms and carried them into his office.

"Here's you latte, Mr. Hachiu. I'm sorry things are running slowly today, Neji was not in his shop this afternoon." She said.

"Its fine, I suppose." He sounded irritated.

"We do have those boots."

"Where would you like me to put them?" I asked him.

"Set them over there." He pointed to the far corner of his office, the one I was standing near. He looked away from me and back at Hinata. "Hinata, I am going to need you to bring the boots I select to the meeting." He said.

"Yessir." She nodded obediently. "Should I prepare the Miss Naruho's spot at the loft?" She asked.

Naruho? As in Sakura? As in the fabulous, pink haired, supermodel? As in my hero?

"Yes, please. She will be joining us today." He replied.

Joining us? Oh my god! I was going to meet Naruho Sakura! This afternoon!

"Rino." Hinata called.

"Uh, it's Ino." I said coming to attention.

"Go to the letter room and get Mr. Hachiu's mail." She ordered. I obediently obeyed.

After taking the elevator to the first floor, asking where the mailroom was, and walking down the three flights of stairs to the basement where the mailroom was supposedly located, climbing them back up, asking someone else where the mailroom was, going to the third floor and returning to Mr. Hachiu's office with his mail in hand, I came to realize I was coming back to an empty office.

There was a note on Hinata's desk:

_Dino,_

_Gone to meeting. Please take the remaining boots back to Neji. Tell him we will be back tomorrow for a new batch. Tell him Sasuke is unsatisfied. _

"It's Ino." I muttered to myself after placing Mr. Hachiu's mail on Hinata's desk. I gathered the bags of boots and began on my way back to Neji's shop. When she counted the boxes she realized Sasuke had only taken one pair of boots with him. I'd lugged them all the way back to the shop just for him to reject most of them. I was upset about having to carry so many boxes, but mostly because I was not going to get to meet Sakura. One good thing could come of this trip back to the shop: I would get to see that cute Naruto again.

Wrong. When I got to the shop he was no where in sight. Someone else had taken his spot behind the counter, and they were hardly as nice as Naruto. I missed him and I wasn't sure why.

I got a call from Hinata on my way out of the shop.

"You can get lunch, now. Mr. Hachiu and Miss Naruho are going to lunch. The office will be closed for the afternoon, so after lunch you can go home. Be sure to lock up first." She ordered again.

"Yes mamn." I agreed.

I went to lock up the office first; I knew I wouldn't feel like going back after a meal. When I decided on a place to eat, I headed right for it. I was practically starving by this time. I hadn't eaten anything all day. It was early evening now. Running up and down the city took a lot out of you and a lot of time. Late lunch turned into early dinner. I decided to go to a nice looking place called _Kajitsushu. _It sounded expensive, but it really wasn't. Temari and I had always wanted to dine there but we could never find the time. For once I had the time, and Temari was at working, selling someone some useless thing they didn't need.

I went inside and sat down waiting to order. It was a nice little place, and great place to have a date, or quite frankly have a nice dinner alone. As I waited for a waiter to come by I glanced around the dining room taking in the atmosphere, when something caught my eye.

A few tables over there was a familiar looking blond haired man sitting with a lovely looking blue haired woman. The two stood up from their seats and he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. It made me a little sad to see the scene go down. To be honest, I felt like I was starting to develop a crush on Naruto. But it seemed as though he was taken. I sighed to myself and looked back down at the menu in front of me. I heard his voice approaching me.

"I will see you tomorrow, Konan." He smiled at the woman they walked past. His voice faded past me.

"What can I get you tonight?" A waiter had appeared at the end of my table.

"Oh, I'll have a salad to start off." I said folding up the menu in front of me. "And a water with ice."

"Ok mamn, I'll be back in a moment with your drink." The waiter said.

"Alright."

"Hey," I turned around to see Naruto walking toward me. "it's you again." He was smiling at me.

I would have been excited to have him talking to me, but he had just bid a dew to his girlfriend, or wife, or something. "Yea, hey." I still smiled.

"Fancy seeing you here." He said standing next to me at the end of the table.

"No kidding." I smiled politely. "I see you finally got away from work."

"As did you." He said rocking on his heals.

Our conversation was becoming dry.

"So are you waiting for someone?" He asked.

"No. It was kind of supposed to be a date, but Temari was busy." I sighed heavily.

A light that had appeared in his eyes immediately faded. "Oh."

"Yea, so its me, myself, and I tonight."

"Yea. . . Well, don't get the stake. It's way over priced."

"Really?" I looked at my purse, I only had so much. "Maybe I should go somewhere else."

"You're betting off charring all the flavor out of your own stake at home. S'cheaper." He nodded slipping is hands into his pockets.

"Oh." I said scratching the shiny table-top with my fingernail.

Our conversation finally died. I sat there for a minute or two not looking at Naruto in the face, but I could tell he wasn't trying to look at mine, so I didn't feel too guilty. I looked at his legs still in a long pleated pair of khaki slack, and black shoes. He looked very nice in this, it was almost impossible to think about him in anything else. I wondered what he wore when he wasn't at work. As soon as I started thinking about it, I shooed it away because it seemed a little odd to be thinking of him so much.

"Well, I gotta be getting home." He said finally breaking the awkward silence we had built up.

"Oh. Yea." My heart broke a little more. But what could I do? He was with someone, why would he stand in this restaurant talking to me?

"I hope I see you in the shop again." He smiled down at me.

"Yea, I'll be there tomorrow." I grinned up at him. I felt excited for some reason again.

"Oh yea, see?" He smiled wider.

We didn't say anything for a minute again. The silence started to build up again.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow, then." He nodded having to break the silence again.

"Yea. Bye, Naruto."

"Bye." His smile softened into a less brilliant enthusiastic smile as he turned to leave. "Oh hey, Ino." He said coming back to the end of the table.

"If uh, this Temari ever gives you any trouble, just call me." He nodded with a smirk on his face.

I was a bit confused. Why would I need to call him if Temari gave me any trouble? "Alright. . ." I can only imagine I looked confused. "But I don't have your number."

He pulled a pen out of his pocket and started scribbling numbers down on a napkin. "Yea, here it is." He slid it in front of me when he was finished.

"Alright, I'll give you a call if there's any trouble." I still sounded and looked confused.

"Alright, then." He smiled a little looking nervy. "Well bye." He left kind of quickly after that.

I folded up the napkin and put it in my purse. When my salad came I ate it quickly pondering today's events and didn't order anything else. When I left the restaurant I pulled the napkin back out of my purse. I was confused about this whole thing. I tried to rationalize this. Maybe he was like a best friend counselor or something. I stuffed the napkin into my pocket and made my way hone to my apartment where Temari was surely waiting.

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**AN**: Aww. Oblivious love is 3. 10 reviews!


	2. Chapter 2

**AN**: So I totally couldn't wait to upload this. I don't even care that I didn't get 10 reviews on the first chapter! This one should be more successful. As always tell me what you think. Please do review. I enabled anonymous reviews, I didn't know I had it disabled but yea. Everyone can tell me how they feel. I hope you like this chapter people. I loved writing it.

**Disclaimer**: I still don't own any characters.

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"He said what?" Temari called from the living room. Our apartment was small, not in the way that we have no room to breathe, more in that way that everything is in a close proximity of each other. I was in the bathroom pulling my hair up into a messy bun.

"He said to call him if you gave me any trouble." I repeated as I slid my giant baggy lavender pony shirt over my head. "Whatever that means." I straightened my eyebrow hairs as they often got messy when I put shirts on.

"Whatever that means?" Temari laughed. "That means he thinks I'm your boyfriend!" She cackled.

"No!" I leaned out of the bathroom doorway with my toothbrush hanging out of my mouth. I had toothpaste foam on my lips. I sounded astonished. "Why would he think that?" I swished the words out of mouth through the toothpaste.

"You said you had a date right?"

"Well yea." I shrugged walking over to the couch she was sitting on, mouth rinsed and clean. "But I didn't mean date. . ." I said plopping down on the other end of the couch.

"It doesn't matter what you meant, its what you said." Temari grinned.

"Well then why does it matter what he meant and not what he said?" I demanded.

"Because he's a guy."

"What happened to the days when women were the evil sex?" I made a confused face.

Temari laughed. "Well look at it like this: He likes you." She grinned at me.

"He can't like me. He's with some blue haired woman." I reminded her.

"Oh. . ." She looked away from me for a second like she was thinking. "Maybe he isn't happy with her. Maybe he wants you."

"No, Temari. You didn't see this woman. She was gorgeous. I wouldn't be surprised if it was like Naruho Sakura's cousin. She was paper white, and her hair was electric. It was so blue." I sighed sadly. "She was kind of weird, she had on the thickest eyeliner I've ever seen a woman that age wear, and she even had her lip pierced!"

"Lip ring? Eye liner? Are you sure it wasn't his fifteen year old sister?" Temari sneered in my direction as she took a sip of her soda.

"No, she was grown. And beautiful."

"That doesn't mean anything, Ino." Temari looked me in the eye. "You're beautiful too."

"Not like his girlfriend. Why would he want me instead of her?" I looked away from her.

"Have you looked in the mirror, ever?!" Temari cried at me. "You are gorgeous! Even right now with that ugly shirt on and that messy hair!"

"Hey I like this shirt." I whined. "Besides, even if he was for some unfathomable reason unhappy with this blue haired woman, he couldn't like me anyways. He thinks I have a boyfriend."

"Why should he care if you were with someone – which you aren't – but if you were. You like him, don't you?"

"Well yea."

"Well he is with someone, and you don't care. So, what of it?" She said making her point.

I sighed. This was all so dumb, I'd only talked to this man twice in my life and I was acting like he could actually be my boyfriend or something. "Whatever, I don't wanna' stress. Who cares if he's with someone, there's other fish in the sea." I smiled.

Temari sighed and turned on the TV. "I guess so. More fish in the sea."

For a while I sat on the couch and watched _BRAVO_ with Temari. I eventually got tired and decided I need to go to bed. My room was across from the front kitchen walk way. It was catty-corner to the front door. I laid in bed for a long time listening to the soft murmur of _E!_ from the living room. I stared at my dark ceiling for a while, and then out the window. We had a corner apartment so I actually had a something to look out of. Window or not, I didn't have much of a view. I let Temari get the room with the nice view when we moved in. I didn't mind looking at building next to ours. I think it was a laundry mat and an apartment building. It was where we did our laundry. I started out at the brick wall glowing in the moonlight across the alley from my window. I closed my eyes and finally tried to sleep.

I never really fell asleep. I was on and off. I would wake up every once in a while feel like it'd only been a few minutes since I closed my eyes, only to realize that it had been an hour or so. So I must have fallen asleep at some point. I woke up again, and turned over to look at my clock. The glowing green letters read 1:53, but it only felt like 11. I turned back over irritated with myself for still being awake. I had work in the morning, off to run the city again, no doubt. I closed my eyes and found myself on the rim of sleep. I was suddenly awakened by the horrid buzzing sound of our door buzzer.

_Reaaaah. Reaaaah. _

I sat up in bed wondering who on Earth would be at the door at this time of night. I sat up in bed. The apartment was quiet so I could only assume that Temari was already asleep. I lifted myself out of my bed and opened my door to answer the buzzer.

"Who is it?" I leaned on the button for support. I was sleeping on the buzzer. I left out a yawn.

"It's Naruto," My heart flew up into my throat. "you left your phone at the shop." I must have set it down somewhere when before I left.

"Oh, come on up." I buzzed him into the building.

A few minutes later he was knocking on my door. "Hey I'm sorry its so late, I was busy all night." He said as I opened the door for him. He handed me the phone.

"Thank you so much for bringing this to me." I clasped the phone in my hand.

"You're welcome. I knew you would need it." He smiled. "I found it on the counter."

"I don't know how I could have forgotten this." I felt so dumb.

"Its no big deal. I saved it for you." He grinned at me.

It was then that I realized he was still wearing his work attire. It was also then that I realized I looked like a bum. I wasn't even wearing any pants. Just some shorts that you couldn't see out from under my long shirt. I blushed a little folding my arms across my sports bra flattened chest.

"How did you find my place?" I asked.

"I checked the receipt you signed for you last name, and then checked the phone book." He scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, well that was sleuthy of you." I smiled.

"Yea, it sounds a little stalkerish to me. I'm really not creepy." He sounded nervous.

"No, you saved my job."

"Well thanks." He smiled coyly. I think I could see the tint of his cheeks pinken even through the darkness of my apartment. "I'm sorry if I woke you." He said quickly as if he had just remembered to say it.

"Oh its ok." I yawned.

"Aw, I'm gonna' go. We both have work in the morning." He sighed.

I really didn't want him to go, but I knew he had a girlfriend or something waiting for him. It was really late, and I needed to sleep. "Alright. I guess I will see you at the shop tomorrow." I smiled.

"Yea." He turned towards the door with a soft smile on his face. "Goodnight, Ino."

"Goodnight, Naruto." I smiled to myself because he wasn't facing me anymore. But then it hit me. "Wait," I touched his shoulder to stop him. I got shocked. "Ouch." I whispered as I stuck my finger in my mouth.

"Yea?" He asked turning back to me.

"Thanks again for bringing this to me." I hugged him around the neck.

"You're welcome." He said with an airy tone.

My face almost brushed his on my way out of the hug. I could feel the heat in his cheeks. I figured I made him uncomfortable, as he had a girlfriend or something.

"Bye." He said as he walked out the door.

"Bye." I said as I closed it behind him.

After that I went back to bed. This time I fell asleep quickly and I was out until 7:15 when my alarm went off.

- - -

So at 7:15 eventually did roll around. I woke up groggy eyed, I was exhausted. I didn't blame Naruto though. It wasn't all him, plus even if it was entirely his fault he totally saved my ass. Once I was a ready I walked out into the kitchen. I made myself a bagel with cream cheese. Just then Temari was walking out of her bedroom. It was one of those rare mornings where we crossed paths. I was spreading strawberry cream cheese on the second half of my bagel when she bombarded me.

"So I heard you up last night." She smirked at me as she walked into the kitchen.

"Yea?" I said taking a bite of my bagel.

"Yea, with a guy~" She sang at me with googley eyes. She was still in her pjs. "It was him, wasn't it?"

"Yea. . ." I smiled a little.

"Why so late?"

"He was bringing me my phone. I apparently left it at the shop he works at." I swallowed another piece of my bagel. "And thank god he did."

"Nice, real smooth, Ino." She said taking a swig of milk from the carton.

"Ew get a glass." I whined. "It was pretty smooth, even if it was a mistake." I said with a yawn at the end. "But none of that matters he still has a girlfriend." I took the last bite of my bagel very aggressively. "Or something. . ."

Temari rolled her eyes as I made my way of the kitchen. I grabbed my bag and the cell phone Naruto had brought to me last night. I clasped it in my hand really tightly and then carefully slid it into my bag. I didn't get to be in the office long before Hinata sent me back to _Neji._ This time she asked for the lattes before I got there, so that was nice. I didn't have to worry about speeding up my mission for the sake of scolding coffee. I could linger around the shop as long as I wanted to. But not really.

I didn't have to be at work until 9:00. So when I got to _Neji_ it was about 10:00. As I was walking into the store I passed the woman with the blue hair walking out. Naruto was watching her leave with a brilliant smile on his face. As she pushed the door open I noticed something alarming about her. She was wearing a big giant diamond ring. It was the last thing I wanted to see, I was so shocked that I almost dropped both of the lattes I was carrying. My heart fell and shattered.

Damn. I thought from last night I might have a chance with him, maybe Temari was right. Maybe he was unhappy with her, but not now. How could I think that now? He was marrying this girl!

"Good morning." He grinned at me as I walked up to the counter.

I felt a little mad at him for leading me on.

"Good morning." I said sort of sternly as I set one of the lattes down on the counter and slid it towards him. "I got you one this morning so you wouldn't be so tired. I know I was this morning." I said feeling my anger becoming short lived.

"Thanks." He said picking up the cup and taking a sip. "That was sweet of you." He smiled a warm smile at me.

I tried to stay mad at him, but his eyes were so sweet, and his smile was so warm. I just couldn't. "Thanks, I'm glad you think so." I said. "Is Neji in this morning?" I added cutting the small-talk.

"Oh!" He said. "I feel like you come here to visit me." He said in a slightly embarrassed tone. "Not that you would, or anything. But yea, he's in." He picked up the phone sitting on the counter and dialed a few numbers, not really enough to be a whole phone number. "Mr. Yaguha, someone has come to pick up the second order from Sakura Kiss." He said into the mic. There was a second or two of silence. "Yessir." He nodded and then hung up. He began writing something on a small piece of paper and then handed it to me. "Go to the seventh floor, and look for room 7090." The paper had the room number on it just incase it slipped my mind. "That's the closet with the second order in it. They are in the brown boxes."

I nodded and walked around the desk over to the side of the room with the elevator in the back. I stepped inside and pressed the button with a seven on it. The elevator took me to the seventh floor as expected. When I stepped out of the elevator I realized that I was standing in front of a room labeled 7079. I walked down the hall and around a corner, 7090 was right there. I twisted the doorknob but it didn't let. The room seemed to be locked. What was I going to do now? I looked down one end of the hall, and then the other. No one was in sight. I jiggled the knob again and then sighed. I guessed I'd just have to go back down stairs and ask Naruto for a key. I was tapping my fingers on the door frame. I turned to go back to the elevator.

I was rounding the corner, when _BAM_. I had run right into someone. I feel to the ground. I was horrified as I sat on the floor, what if I had run into Mr. Yaguha?

"Ino! I'm so sorry!" Naruto cried putting his hand out for me to grab it. "I didn't see you!"

Oh, it was only Naruto. . . _Yay_. "Oh its ok." I said taking his hand and letting him pull me to my feet.

"I forgot the closet was locked." He said walking around me to get to room 7090.

"Yea, I was about to come down and ask for a key."

"Yea, sorry. I forget things a lot." He shrugged and flung open the door. "Uhm, the order is over there on those shelves." He pointed over to a long tall shelf with ten brown boxes on it.

"Well that is a lot less than yesterday." I sighed gathering the boxes into some bags. "Are you sure that's all of it?"

"I'm pretty sure. That's all he gave me." Naruto nodded.

"Alright, well. I gotta get these back to the office." I sighed softly.

"Ok, well I will see you another time." He smiled.

This time I really didn't think I was going to see him again, and that made me sad. There was always the off chance that Sasuke still didn't find what he was looking for in this order, but probably not. I smiled weakly. "Ok, Naruto." I smiled weakly. It didn't matter if I saw him or not. All that would happen was I would start to really fall for him and then I'd get really upset 'cause he didn't like me 'cause he was already with some freaky, pretty blue haired woman. Our friendship would just never work out.

- - -

I went back to the office, and for once Sasuke didn't have me take anything back. The day was pretty uneventful. In fact, the rest of the week was pretty uneventful. There was a few times when I could have gone to see Naruto at the shop, but I was trying really hard to wean myself of his presence. If I never had to see him again, it would be too soon. And trust me, I wasn't avoiding him because I wanted to, because I wanted to. I just wasn't about to let myself get all wrapped up in something that could never happen. Maybe I was over reacting. I just could feel myself getting sadder and sadder every time I saw him. I was starting to like him more and more.

I went to visit him on Wednesday. I said I had lost my phone again and was wondering if I had left it here again. I used the excuse as kind of a way to say goodbye without saying I wasn't going to talk to him anymore. By this point I considered him a friend, and he considered me likewise. But I had to separate myself from him.

Temari noticed I had become less animated. So she planned to take me out Saturday after work. Saturday night finally rolled around, and there we were on our way to _Hyoushi_, one of the hottest clubs in Tokyo. I was a little excited about going, because it would be the perfect place to forget Naruto.

"Tonight will be great." Temari grinned at me as we waited in line outside the club.

"Yea." I smiled nervously.

I was just a few months too young to get into the club, and there was in fact a bouncer monitoring the door checking IDs. I had a fake on I got in high school so I could buy my friend's cigarettes. I had it with me, and even though I had memorized the date of birth and every other aspect of the ID, I was still a little nervous about sneaking in.

"I'm so excited. We haven't gone out in forever!" Temari grinned at me even bigger. "I'm bringing someone home tonight, for sure." She winked.

"Temari!"

"What? I haven't gotten laid in months."

"You're terrible." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm finding someone for you, too." She bobbed her eyebrows playfully.

"Oh no," I whined. "I don't want to sleep with some random guy, tonight."

"But you really need to."

I sighed. She was right, in a way. She wasn't right for suggesting that sleeping around was the answer, but she was right in the way that I would totally forget about Naruto if I found some other guy to occupy myself with.

"IDs?" The bouncer said as we made our way to the front of the line.

Temari handed him hers and I handed him mine. He examined them and let us through without a second thought. I must have looked like a twenty year old, and why not? My birthday was a few months away.

We got inside and the club was pumping, for a lack of better terminology. "I'm gonna' go dance." Temari yelled at me over the music.

"Ok." I cried as she walked away. I walked over to the bar and sat down. I waited to be tended to. A brown haired man behind the counter scurried by me to grab a bottle of Gin.

"I'll be with you in a minute." He said on his way back over to his customer.

I nodded and in no time he was in front of me asking for my order.

"What can I get for you Beautiful?" He grinned at me from behind the bar. Bartenders were always good flirts.

I smiled politely. "Uhm, I'm not sure. What do you suggest?"

"Well that depends, are you looking to get home safely tonight, or are you wanting to forget what your name is?" He laughed a little.

"Hmm, the second sounds good."

"Let's get a couple Martinis in you." He spun around and got a martini glass. He gathered a couple of bottles on the counter and mixed it all up. "That'll do you good." He grinned sliding the glass across the bar.

I took a gingerly sip. "My god, that's strong." I coughed lightly.

"Oh, but it will work."

"I guess so." I sighed and took another sip, a bigger one this time. When I looked down at the glass in my hand there was only one sip left. I gulped that one down and then sighed.

"Knocking them back tonight, aren't we?" He perked his eyebrows in surprise.

"Yea." I said unenthusiastically.

"What's gotcha' down?" He said.

I couldn't help but feel like this whole thing was terribly cliché. I mean, the bartender asking what's wrong while the sad-sap sits sulking on their stool. Say that five times fast. Maybe if we were sitting in a quiet dive it would be a little worse. "Just some guy." I sighed feeling the martini kick in a little.

"A girl as beautiful as you is having boyfriend troubles?" He sounded surprised. I noticed the rest of the bartenders scurrying around behind him.

"You're sweet," I laughed feeling particularly thirsty. "Can I get a White Russian?"

"Yea. Hey, Konoharmaru, get the lady a White Russian, would'ya?" He called to the end of the bar that seemed to have the ice and blender on it. "I don't believe you." He flirted. "I'm sure you're the one giving him trouble." He grinned.

"Yea, it's all me." I rolled my eyes. "_I'm_ the one that forget to tell _him_ I had a girlfriend or something."

"Oh, I see." He nodded. "Guy ran around on ya'?" He prodded.

"You could say that." I said as he placed my White Russian in front of me.

"I put a little extra in there for ya'."

"Thanks." I said taking a sip. Strong stuff, again.

"So what's your name, Beautiful?" He smiled at me.

"Ino." I smiled back. I must have been feeling the drink, already. I was totally a lightweight.

"Ah, what a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." He said. "My names Kiba." He stuck his hand out at me over the bar.

I took it and shook it weakly. "Nice to meet you, Kiba." I said feeling a bit flirtatious suddenly.

"The pleasure is all mine." He grinned. I found myself looking into his eyes. They were very small, and very dark. Not like Naruto's at all. His were big and very light. But there I was thinking about him, again.

"Damnit." I sighed.

"What's the problem?"

"I was thinking about him again." It just kind of slipped out. "His eyes were so pretty." I sounded sad.

"You need to forget about him." He climbed over the bar.

"Tell me about it." I took another sip of my drink noticing I was halfway through it by now. Where had it gone?

"Come dance with me." He pulled me off the bar stool and dragged me to the dance floor. I left my drink on the bar.

He swept me away to the music. I can't remember a whole lot about dancing with him, only that he was really good at it, and I wasn't. I also remembered that he smelled really good. After a while of dancing, I told him I needed to sit down. I was feeling dizzy, I think it must have been those two drinks I had. Two drinks. I sucked!

"Alright, I'll walk you back over to the bar." He said taking my hand and my waist softly and helping my back to my stool where my slightly soupy half of a White Russian was waiting.

I slurped the rest of another drink down when Temari appeared. "Hey!" She cried. I spun around quickly, as she had startled me. "Oh wow, you smell like vodka." She laughed.

"This is my third drink." I smiled up at her. She seemed so tall. "Or fourth. I forget." I laughed softly.

"I met this really cute guy, his name is Kankuro." She sounded excited. "He's totally into me!"

"I met this guy." I grabbed Kiba's shirt sleeve and pulled him halfway over the counter. "His name is Kima." I grinned stupidly. . . I think.

"It's uh, Kiba." He said softly. "I think you should probably not be drinking anymore." He said softly taking the glass out of my hand and placing it behind the bar where I couldn't reach it.

"Oh, ok." I whined softly.

"He's cute." Temari whispered in my ear, kind of. The music was so loud she was really talking louder than normal, but it sure sounded like a whisper.

"I know." I grinned excitedly.

"It's getting kind of late." Temari said. "We should leave sometime. You coming?" She looked at Kiba with a mischievous grin on her face.

"I can get off, if you want me to come." He looked at me with an equally mischievous grin on his face.

"Oh she wants." Temari answered for me.

_I do_? I thought as I looked at Temari. _I think I do_. I thought turning my head back toward Kiba. "Yea, I want." I nodded realizing how gorgeous he looked.

"Alright." He grinned at me and walked around the bar and met me on the other side.

"We ready?" Temari appeared again with a tall brown haired man at her side. He looked a lot like Kiba, but his nose was bigger. He was just as pretty, but much taller.

"Yea, lets go." Kiba said pulling me off the stool with his arm around my waist.

We were walking out of the club when I noticed the back of someone's head that looked really familiar. It was the blue haired woman! She was at the club, which could only mean one thing Naruto was here. I wanted to see him. A lot. Even now with a date, and with his fiancé or something here. I didn't care! I stopped and looked around but I didn't see him. I looked at the man the woman was dancing with, he looked a little like Naruto, but he had these weird piercings on the bridge of his nose, and his hair was red. Whoever it was it definitely was not Naruto. Even I could tell that in my impaired state.

"Oh my god!" I gasped.

"What?" Kiba said pulling me out the door so.

I was confused for a second. I could hear, kind of. My ears were really ringing and the bass from the songs was still pounding inside, but I could here. "Oh nothing." I remembered I didn't care about Naruto anymore. "Lets go." I grinned stupidly.

---

We walked the five blocks back to our apartment. Temari and her date, Kankuro I think was his name, were behind us the whole time. God knows what they were doing back there. I looked back once to see them lip locked, it kind of scarred me so I turned back around quickly and decided not to peek again.

"So Ino," Kiba said kind of softly. "This boyfriend of yours,"

"He's not my boyfriend," I corrected him quickly.

"Oh, well this ex-boyfriend of yours," Ex? How can someone be your ex if you were never together? "was he a nice guy?" He asked.

"Yea, I guess so." I answered.

"Did he have any nicknames for you?"

"No."

"So if I called you Beautiful you wouldn't think of him?"

"No, he never called me Beautiful." I said dumbly.

"He doesn't sound like a very nice guy." He laughed.

"Who cares about him?" I snapped. "I'm supposed to be forgetting about him." I reminded him.

"I know." Kiba nodded.

"Then stop asking about him." I laughed finding the situation all too funny in my head.

"Alright, my lips are sealed." He grinned as we made our way up the stairs to mine and Temari's apartment.

"Good." I grinned up at him.

His arm stayed tightly around my waist until I got up to our door and had to unlock it. Temari and Kankuro sauntered down the walk way and to her bedroom as soon as they walked in the door. Kiba walked over to the couch and sat down. I went into the kitchen and got a glass of water. I was still feeling a little dizzy.

"You want something?" I looked at Kiba in the living room.

"Can I get some water?" He asked.

I nodded and walked into the living room with two glasses of ice water. I sat next to him and he put his arm on the back of the couch behind me. I handed him the glass of water and he took a big gulp. I sipped mine a few times until it was gone. We set the glasses on the coffee table and I closed my eyes and leaned my head on Kiba's shoulder. All of a sudden I felt his breath on my lips. I opened my eyes as his lips touched mine. I then closed my eyes and decided this wasn't so bad and kissed him back. I felt like I needed to brush my teeth, I could still taste the liquor on my breath, I was so sure he could smell it, but I didn't stress it. He didn't seem to mind a whole lot. He pulled away lightly and then pressed his lips against mine again, this time a little harder. I pressed mine back as our lips moved in unison. He parted his lips slightly and licked mine softly. I parted mine a little and tasted his tongue. It tasted sweet, and soft.

We continued like this for a few minutes. The kisses got more vigorous and I was more than tasting his tongue by now. After a bit longer I was no long leaning on his shoulder. I was lying on the couch and he was on hanging over me. I had my arms around his neck and he was propping himself up on his. He eventually pulled away and stood up. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"To your bedroom." He grinned at me.

I grinned back and pulled him off to my bedroom.

When we got into my room as soon as the door was shut he pushed me over onto my bed. I plopped down and laughed a little. I seemed to have forgotten about Naruto for the moment, in fact I hadn't thought about him at all since we left the club. Not until just then at least. And I quickly pushed him out of my mind.

Kiba threw off his jacket and pulled his shirt over his head and threw that on the floor. He pushed me over lightly and climbed on top of me. I lied down obediently. I was a little excited. My heart was beating really fast, and it only got faster as he kissed my neck. He would kiss it, and then suck on it a little, and then bite it softly. I let out a soft gasp as he nipped the nape of my neck a little harder than before. He let out a breathy chuckle and then kissed the same spot. He moved down to my collarbone and then kissed me there, and then he pulled down the neckline of my shirt and kissed me in the middle of my chest. He sat up on my lap and pulled me up just enough to pull my shirt over my head. I let him do it and then lied back down. He leaned back over me and slid the strap of my bra down my shoulder. He kissed the warm spot where it had been and then snaked his arms behind my back to undo the hooks.

He kissed my neck and a little more, and left me a couple of hickies. He ran his fingers up and down my side. I took in a few deep breaths every time he hit a sweet spot on my side. His hand landed on the zipper of my skirt and he slowly unzipped it. He slipped his index finger under the strap of my bikini underwear and tugged on it a little. Like a sign that they needed to come off.

He sat up and walked over to the light switch and flipped it off. I pulled off the rest of my clothes and heard him near the door unzipping his pants and rustling some clothing on the floor, surely throwing them down in the pile of the rest of his clothes. He climbed back into my bed, this time beside me and the rest is bliss.

I remember laying there next to him right after we were done. My hair a mess sticking to my forehead and my neck. I breathed heavily trying to catch my breath. I felt so tired, and disgusting because everything was sticking to my skin. I pulled the covers over my bare chest and closed my eyes. Kiba breathed deeply next to me. He sat up and looked at me. My eyes had adjusted to the dark by now.

"I'm gonna' get some water, you want some?" He grinned down at me. He must have been proud of what we had just done.

I smiled dizzily. "Yea." I was still breathing heavily.

He left the room wearing my bathrobe I had hanging on the back of my bedroom door and came back in with one glass of water. He handed me the glass and sat on the edge of my bed. I took a sip and looked at him. He was really pretty in the moonlight. In some ways he was prettier than Naruto. Kiba's face was more angular and the shape of his eyes was too. He smiled down at me and took the glass out of my hand and took a sip himself. I smiled back and closed my eyes. I was kind of happy for the moment, but at the same time I was really sad.

I found myself thinking about Naruto again. Kiba lied down next to me and kissed me on the cheek. "Goodnight, Beautiful." He said softly.

I smiled at him as he closed his eyes. He quickly fell asleep. I tried to sleep, I was exhausted I wanted to sleep but my mind was racing. Now that my distraction had fallen asleep next to me, I was left to myself again. I thought about Naruto for a while, and then I thought about the club and how I had seen his fiancé or something kissing some other guy. I felt a little sick. I hurt for Naruto, because he had no idea what she was doing. I closed my eyes really tightly and pushed him out of my mind. I was supposed to be forgetting about him.

I closed my eyes and made myself go to sleep.

I opened my eyes again. I couldn't sleep. I was wide awake. I sat up in my bed and looked around my darkroom. I pushed the pile of clothes away from the door and opened it up just big enough to slip out. I walked into the kitchen and leaned on the counter. I didn't feel dizzy anymore. I flipped on the light and when I did I looked up. There was someone sitting on my couch. It scared the hell out of me, I wasn't expecting anyone to be awake. I looked a little closer and realized it was Naruto. What the hell was he doing here? I had just forgotten about him and he was ruining it!

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" I scurried into the living room.

"You called me." He said.

"Oh yea." I nodded and sat down on the couch. "I missed you." I leaned over a kissed him.

He kissed me back as if it was the most normal thing in the world for me to be saying something like that, let alone be kissing him. "I missed you too." He said kissing me again, harder this time.

My heart jumped into my throat and began to race. We kissed a few more times until they became less innocent and before I knew it he was laying on top of me and kissing my neck.

I gasped every time he nipped a little too hard, and let out heavy sighs every time he moved down. He finally ended up just below my belly button and I stopped him.

"Naruto!" I cried feeling a fire rise inside me.

"What!?" He cried. I flung my eyes open and gasped. Kiba was on top of my, no where near my belly button and he looked disgusted. "What did you call me?" He demanded.

I must have fallen asleep. "I-I don't know!" I cried as he climbed off of me and lied in my bed next to me.

"You called me Naruto, who is Naruto?" He sounded angry.

"No one." I snapped.

"Its your ex-boyfriend isn't it?" He cried. "Its totally not cool to say other guys names when you're sleeping with someone else!" He cried.

"I know, I didn't mean to." I scrambled. "I'm sorry."

"Whatever." He sneered as he marched over to the door to put all his clothes back on.

"I'm really sorry!" I cried wrapping my blackest around me and chasing him out of my bedroom door.

"Don't even bother being sorry, you'll never be over him." He sighed and stormed out of the front door slamming it behind him.

I sighed. He was wrong, he couldn't be right. I couldn't be wrapped up in someone who 1) I just met about a week ago, 2) had a fiancé or something, and 3) was never my boyfriend and never would be! I turned around feeling like an ass. I looked up and saw that Temari and Kankuro were leaning out of her bedroom door. I looked Temari in the eye and frowned.

I walked back into my room and closed the door and locked it. I was really mad at myself, and embarrassed, but more than anything I was upset. This whole thing was really dumb, how could I be so head over heels for some guy I hardly knew? I lied down in my bed and went back to sleep.

- - -

I spent Sunday sulking around the house. More embarrassed than upset about Naruto. Temari tried to talk to me a few times, but I didn't want to talk a lot. I explained to her what happened and that was the most I said to her for the whole day. I went to bed early.

Monday morning rolled around and went to work feeling big and dumb and slutty. All I could do was pray that Sasuke didn't send me off to the _Neji_ to pick up some other order. I was halfway to work when my cell phone rang.

"I already got the lattes." I said upon answering the phone.

"Hinata is sick today." It was Sasuke's voice. "I need you to stand in for her at the meeting this morning." He said.

"What? Really? That's great." I felt excited.

"Yes. Bring an espresso for Miss Naruto."

"What?" I stammered. It almost sounded like he said Naruto.

"I said Naruho. My wife." He said and hung up the phone.

I grinned really wide. I was finally going to meet Sakura! I was so excited.

I got to the office a little late because I had to go back to the coffee shop and buy an espresso for Sakura. I met Sasuke in the lobby, he was already leaving.

"Mr. Hachiu! I'm so sorry I'm late I had to bu-"

"No excuses." He said. We walked out the front door to find a big black limo pulling up to the front of the building. Sasuke opened the door and climbed inside. "Are you coming or are you going to stand there and gawk?" He asked sternly.

I climbed inside the limo and looked around. My eyes feel on a pale-skinned, pink haired beauty sitting on the opposite side of the limo. I could hardly believe it, I was sitting just three feet away from Naruho Sakura.

"Espesso." Sasuke demanded as he took his seat across from his wife. I handed him the small foam cup and then a taller foam cup. I sat back in my seat and closed my door. I sipped on my latte and gawked at Sakura. I could tell she was staring at me through her huge sunglasses.

"She's staring at me." She said softly to Sasuke.

"Have you no manners, girl?" He glared at me.

"I'm sorry." I looked out the window feeling my cheeks turning pink. For the rest of the way to the meeting I sat with my face turned away from Sasuke and Sakura. They talked about some collaboration runway show with Yaguha Neji which would explain me running to his shop all last week. Sasuke talked about how he was all but thrilled about the event and was irritated with Neji because he was a horrible designer and everything he sent him was ugly.

We eventually pulled up to a short, thick, building that was red brick on the outside with five strips of black windows all the way around it. I followed the duo into building and into an elevator that took us to the third floor. The elevator opened up into a huge loft, no hallway at all. There were about five people sitting at a big long table to one side of the loft. We walked over and Sasuke and Sakura took the last two seats. I stood off to the side holding a stack of paper Sasuke had told me to hold. Neji was at the head of the table.

I drifted in and out of attention. The lavender eyed man at the end of the table argued with Sasuke about a bunch of things until everything was worked out. As soon as they seemed to have everything in order, something else would be brought up and the two would argue that over.

"I have those paper and your latte, Mr. Yaguha." A man's voice called from the back of the room where the elevator was located.

"Thank you, Naruto." Neji said as the man walked to his side placing the papers on the table and the latte in his hand.

Oh my god. I could hardly believe what I was seeing! Was there no escape for me?

"What is he doing here?" Sakura cried.

She read my mine.

"He's my new assistant." Neji smirked at the pink haired woman.

Naruto was too concerned with Sakura to notice me standing there. He looked away from her seeming embarrassed which made directed his gazed toward me. His eyes caught mine and they seemed to light up, but at the same time he looked really upset. He looked forward and away from me.

"I want to leave, Sasuke." Sakura demanded.

"We'll be done soon, don't let him ruin this for you." Sasuke sneered in Naruto's direction.

I was extremely confused right now. Firstly I wanted to know why Sakura was so upset to see Naruto this morning, as if she'd ever seen him before in her life. Also I wanted to know why Naruto wouldn't look at me. Had he somehow spoken with Kiba? Did he tell him about Saturday night? Did he even know Kiba? Then I wanted to know if Naruto knew what his fiancé of whatever had been doing at _Hyoushi _this weekend. But more than any of that I wanted to get the hell out of this meeting and get as far away from Naruto as possible because I couldn't stop thinking about the dream I had when I was with Kiba. This whole thing was becoming all too much.

* * *

**AN**: Haha! KankuTema FTW! Hey now, it's not gross and incestuous when they aren't related in my fic, bitches. Just enjoy it because I know you do. Soooo, how'd every like my mild lemons? There will be more later, no worries, you'll get your fill. (: Until then: REVIEW. Sorry about any gramatical or spelling errors. I just skimmed over it before I uploaded it.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN**: Yea. I am mad tired, so you will really, REALLY just have to get over and spelling or grammar errors. I felt inspired suddenly last night, and I had to write. I know you were all waiting for it, so you better enjoy it. I will update soon, and I mean it this time. I am going to start my next chapter very soon. (: Until then, enjoy this one. REVIEW.

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I woke up late the next day. It was rainy. I left the house so fast and would have made it to work just in time had Hinata not called needing hot soup for breakfast. She was still a little sick; she insisted that she was past the infectious phase, so Mr. Hachiu would let her into work. I walked into the office five minutes late with three lattes, one hot soup and a stack of papers Mr. Hachiu had me pick up for him in the mail room on my way up.

"You're late." Hinata said clacking away on her keyboard. Her nose sounded stuffed up.

"Here's your soup." I said irritated as I set it down on her desk. "And your latte." I walked into Mr. Hachiu's office to bring him his latte. "Good morning Mr. Hachiu." I said setting his latte and the papers he had asked for.

"Ino, I need you to attend this morning's meeting with me." He said swiveling around in his chair to face me.

"Me? But Hinata is here today."

"Hinata is sick as a dog, and I don't want her germs all over me or my things." He said flatly. "So you'll be attending the meeting with me today."

"Yessir." I nodded as I walked out of the room. The last thing I wanted to do was go back there, what if I had to talk to Naruto or something?

"Gino, hand me my bag. I'll be leaving for the meeting pretty soon, and I need you to take this to the mail room for Mr. Hachiu –" Hinata began to order me around again.

"Actually, I'm going to the meeting." I interrupted her. I only felt excited because I was getting to go _instead of her_, not actually because I was getting to go. "And its Ino."

"What?" She demanded. "Why on earth would – _ACHOO_! Why would – _ACHOO_!" She sniffled a couple of times. "Why would he take you?" She asked her nose sounding stuffier than ever.

"Because you are diseased." Mr. Hachiu said stepping out of his office and passing us both with an umbrella in his hand.

Hinata sat back in her desk and pouted. "Who will take the mail?"

"You'll be here with nothing to do, you run the errands." Sasuke sighed as he walked out into the hall.

I smirked to myself as I walked out behind him. I could imagine the look on Hinata's face right now.

We went back to the short stout building, back up to the large open loft, back to the table with the seven seats, and back to standing silently behind Mr. Hachiu praying that he didn't prompt me to do anything that would require me looking up into Naruto's direction.

This meeting was particularly short. It must have been one of the last ones before the show. Sasuke left the office early for brunch with Miss Naruho. This left me and Hinata in the office alone. The entire time I felt as if she was going to gouge out my eyes. Everything she said sounded snippy, and stuffy.

"Go get me some scissors off of Mr. Hachiu's desk." She ordered.

I didn't really hear her. I was dazed off thinking about how Naruto didn't try to talk to me again. It confused me. He must have found out about Saturday, somehow.

"Hey!" Hinata's voice broke into my thoughts. "Get me the damned scissors." She glared at me.

"Oh, sorry." I went into his office and grabbed a pair of scissors out of one of the draws on his desk.

As I rummaged around for them, I noticed a picture of Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all standing together. Sasuke and Naruto were standing arm in arm and they were smiling. Sakura was wearing a beautiful dress and she was grinning pointing at a plaque that Naruto was holding. She was grinning as wide as the other two. They all three looked so excited. There was a light in all their eyes that I had never seen before. I picked up the picture and looked at it very closely. It made me remember the meeting yesterday and the way Sakura had reacted to his presence. This did nothing but confuse me even more.

"What is taking so long?" Hinata droned from the foyer. "Did you fall in?"

"Sorry!" I cried setting down the picture and then speed walked out of the office.

"Geez, I could have gotten them myself if I knew you were going to take all day." She snatched the scissors out of my hand.

I took a seat in the chair that was on the other side of her desk. I sipped my latte. Maybe she knew something about the Naruto thing. "So uhm, there was this guy at the meetings the past couple of days." I said.

Hinata rolled her eyes. "You don't need to rub it in." She sneered.

"No, I'm just wondering. His name is Naruto. Why does –"

"What? Neji really hired him?" She gasped.

"Who is he, why do Mr. Hachiu and Miss Naruho hate him so much?" I cried. The words kind of just fell out of my mouth. I wanted to know so badly.

"Well you see, a long, long time ago that man used to be best friends with Mr. Hachiu and Miss Naruho. A long time ago Sakura Kiss was known as –"

"Hachiu Kumuzai Productions, I know." I nodded.

"Well that _man_, was the Kumuzai." Hinata nodded.

What? What!? Naruto, _Neji _cash register Naruto, engaged or whatever Naruto, in my dreams Naruto was _Kumuzai Naruto_!? How could I not have known! This was crazy! "W-well, what happened between the three of them?" I was still choking on the thought.

"Well when they started the company, Mr. Hachiu was the designer, Miss Naruho was the model, and Mr. Kumuzai was the manager." Hinata handed me the scissors. I took them in hand too entranced in her story to take them back to Mr. Hachiu's office. "Right from the start, Sakura exploded into popularity. Soon enough things became all about her, and less about Sasuke's designs. Naruto wanted to keep things equal. He wanted to keep things about the three of them, mostly Sasuke and Sakura of course, but all equal.

"As soon as the money started coming in, Sasuke stopped caring about the popularity of his designs and decided that everything was better off being all about Sakura. At this time, Naruto and Sakura were together, but their relationship was on the rocks. One day Sakura came to Sasuke with bruises all over her body. She claimed that Naruto had beaten her."

My stomach suddenly clenched, and all the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end.

"Naruto swore that he hadn't touched her and that she had fallen down the stairs of their apartment building as she was leaving that morning 'surely to come and cheat on him like she did everyday' he had the nerve. Just a few weeks after that, Sakura broke up with him and fired him as her manager. A couple of months later Sakura and Sasuke got married." Hinata looked at me in the eye now.

"I can't believe Neji would go so low." She shook her head.

There were a million and five thoughts rolling around in my head. I couldn't speak at all. Naruto could not have beaten Sakura, he couldn't have hurt anyone! He was so nice, so sweet. What I had seen of him at least. But I hardly knew him... Maybe I didn't like him as much I thought I did, maybe I shouldn't like him as much as I was starting to. If he really did something like that to her, to anyone; I didn't know how I should feel about him.

"But Sasuke has a picture . . ." I said to myself. Surely if Sasuke had a picture of the three of them on his desk, surely he didn't hate him.

Mr. Hachiu came back the office soon after that. He stopped by to pick up a few things he needed to finish some designs he was working on, and to drop off a few things he needed to be run to over to _Neji_. My face went pale as soon as the words came out of his mouth, I knew I was going to be the one to take them. And I just couldn't face Naruto right now. Not only was I still coping over the lingering memory of the dream I had about him Saturday, but I was also beginning to look at him in a new light. He seemed so sweet, but maybe he wasn't. After what Hinata had told me, after the way Sakura had reacted, maybe he wasn't a very nice guy at all.

I was eventually ordered by Hinata to take the finished designs to _Neji_. I dreadfully obeyed. I looked in the window of the shop before I went in. Naruto was thankfully not standing behind the counter. I let out a happy sigh and walked in the door.

"This is for Neji. They are from Sasuke." I said holding up three covered garments that looked like something you'd pick up from a dry cleaner.

"Mr. Yaguha isn't in right now. His assistant will take them for you. You can find him in the ninth floor office." The woman behind the counter nodded to me. I stepped aside so someone in line behind me could get rung up.

"But. . . Can't you take them to the assistant?" I said shakily. This trip couldn't be that easy.

"I'm a little busy, mamn. I told you where you can find him." She glared at me.

I nodded and slowly walked around the checkout counter to the back wall with the elevator on it. I rode the elevator to the ninth floor. I opened up to a long dim hallway with a big black shiny door at the end of it. I walked past a couple of doors on my way to the big black door on the end. I could only guess that Naruto was behind it. Where else would he be?

When I got to the door, I wasn't entirely sure of how to go about getting on the other side. I tapped on it a few times. "Just come in, its open." It was his voice.

I pushed the big door open and sure enough on the other side was Naruto. He was sitting behind a big dark wood desk the matched the door I had just walked through. His eyes widened as I stepped into the room.

"Ino!" He cried. "I haven't seen you in a week and a half." He sounded excited, but at the same time nervous.

"Yea. It's been a while, but here are those designs for Mr. Yaguha, I really must be going, now." I tried to rush myself out of there.

"Ino wait," He ran around his desk to meet me at the door. "Wait, wait." He pressed his hand against the door so I couldn't open it.

"What?"

"I don't know I just haven't talked to you in a long time –"

"So, it's not as if I come here to visit you." I snapped.

"W-well, yea but. . ." He said softly. His voice sounded broken. "I just thought maybe we could talk."

"I don't have time to talk, Mr. Hachiu keeps me very busy." I almost felt bad about being so rude, but I needed to get out.

"But wait I just wanted to a –" He held the door closed still.

"Mr. Kumuzai!" I demanded. "I must be leaving now." My voice was strict and stern, this was a different Ino that I wasn't aware existed.

"Alright, alright." He backed away. "See you another time, maybe?"

I strutted stiffly down the narrow hall, completely ignoring his question. I could feel his big, blue eyes on my back the entire walk down the hall, but I couldn't turn around, because the whole world knows if a girls turns to look at you, it means she wants you. And I surely didn't want Narto. Not knowing what he was capable of. It wasn't something I wanted to believe, but why would Sakura lie about something like that? I considered momentarily that Sakura could have been a conniving bitch; her demeanor surely wasn't a good point in the inspection. I just couldn't bring myself to actually, even for a moment, accept that someone so beautiful could be so evil, so twisted, and so devious. There are certain things in the world girls just don't lie about, being raped, being pregnant, and being beaten. Surely even Naruho Sakura was aware of this universal list.

---

The next couple of weeks were extraordinarily routine. It started with the soup and the lattes - I was ordered to bring _piping hot _soup for the rest of the first week – I was late Friday, but not Thursday. I went to the Thursday meeting, but not the Friday meeting. This only saved me from seeing Naruto on the following Monday, as the meetings were normally over by the time I was ordered to deliver or retrieve things from Neji. After the trying to talk to me on Tuesday and Wednesday, Naruto learned that I wasn't interested anymore and he started having the orders ready on the ground floor for me, from then on.

By Friday night, I was off it - cold turkey – and ready for another girl's night out.

"It'll be great." I spoke into the mic on my cell phone. "I'll bring hom ea guy, and I won't ruin it this time." I laughed softly.

"That's good, I suppose _Hyoushi_ is out of the question?" Temari replied. She was still at work.

"And why would that be?"

"You know, the whole Kiba thing. I wouldn't want to go back." She spoke loudly. She was waitressing at a popular restaurant, it was always busy, and now was so exception.

"No, I'm a big girl. Maybe I'll go find ol' Kiba, give him a proper date." I grinned to myself. It was official, I was completely recovered.

"Nice. " Temari sounded pleased, and like she had gotten a kick out of the comment. "Hey, dinner rush, I'll be home at eight. I'll call you on my next break. Love ya', bye!"

_Click._

I sighed to myself. It was only six-thirty. I had plenty of time to get ready. I set my phone down on the arm of the couch and hopped up and ran to the bathroom. A nice hot shower sounded pretty good right now. I was in the bathroom, stark-raving-naked when…

_Riiiing. Riiiing. _

I wrapped a towel around myself and scurried to the living room, my phone was ringing. _Temari already_? I thought. "What now?"

"Excuse me?" It was a man's voice. I looked down at the phone, it was Mr. Hachiu.

"Oh! Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry Mr. Hachiu! I di–"

"Whatever." He said quickly, cutting me off. "I need you to come to my office, now." He demanded.

"But, I got off an hour ago. . ." I said softly. I knew better than to argue with a man as demanding as Mr. Hachiu and especially when he sounded so, well demanding as now. "Yes, sir, I'll be there soon."

_Click. _

I dressed myself once again and made my way out of my apartment, and quickly back to the office. By the time I got there it was seven-fifteen. The sky was all twilight, and the streetlights were coming on. It was late September, so the days were getting short and it was getting colder and colder outside. I made my way to the normal office, quickly, and found Sasuke sitting behind his desk facing the window, with all the lights off in his office except one little lamp in the corner by the window. It was an odd placement if you asked me.

"I'm here Mr. Hachiu." I called softly, feeling nervous. What reason on Earth had he called my down here for?

"Ah, Ino." He spun around in his chair. "Glad to see you are so dedicated to your job." He grinned up at me, and then stood.

"Yessir, I'm very dedicated." I nodded.

He walked around his desk and over to a wide silver platter with the classic crystal vase of Brandy and two small cups sitting on it. He picked up the vase and popped off the knobby top pouring a little bit of Brandy into both cups.

"For you." He handed one to me and picked the other up proceeding to lean on the front of his desk. "Take a seat."

"I'm a few months short of the drinking age." I said honestly, softly thrusting the glass back into his direction. I took my seat.

"I won't tell anyone." He smiled semi-warmly at me. It was warm, but still intimidating.

I nodded taking a sip of the amber liquid. It was strong, sweet, and bitter all at once. "May I ask why you called me, Mr Hachiu?" I was getting a bit curious.

"Call me Sasuke, please." He sipped once again on the Brandy.

I followed suit. "Ok, Sasuke."

"I was feeling a bit lonely." He said swirling the liquid around in his glass.

"Lonely? But why not call Miss Naruho, maybe Hinata?" I posed.

"Ha." He scoffed softly. "The woman is simply insufferable, Miss Ugyha, that is."

I couldn't argue. "And Miss Naruho?"

I could see his knuckles turn white around the glass, even in the dim orange lighting of the lamp. "She's away on business at the moment." His jaw sounded tight. I could only assume they were having some marital issues.

"Why so much tension?" I asked feeling a bit uncomfortable now.

"A young girl like you wouldn't understand." He smiled softly, kind of sultry down at me. He set his glass down on the desk and stood up straight. Inching a bit closer to the high backed chair I was sitting in a few feet away from him. He placed his hand on my cheek. It was soft, warm. I guess I expected it to be cold, and calloused, something to match his demeanor, because I was surprised at the invitingness of the touch.

"Mr. Hachiu," My eyelashes fluttered, I had to swallow the tension coming up in my throat. "Perhaps you should call Miss Naruho when you are lonely." His fingertips ran between my chin and the apple of my cheek a few times. Was I really feeling flattered?

"She's busy." I could hear the tension in his voice. His finger tips finally stopped at my chin and began to gently pull it upward. I let my face turn up to his, and I looked into his deep, hollow, black eyes. His face was creeping towards mine, and I knew he was about to kiss me. My arms went limp, and my legs tingled, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I felt his breath on my lips. I wanted to pull away so bad, but I body simply wouldn't let me.

His lips pressed against mine, and his hand roamed to the back of my neck, and then to my shoulder. He pulled me softly to my feet with one hand, and guided me by the shoulder with the other; he slowly and softly backed me against the office door. I felt it meet my finger tips before my back. His lips pressed harder against mine, and they started to spread. The movement of my lips followed his, and I tasted his soft, slightly bitter tongue. My mind screamed at me, demanding I stop, but I just couldn't. He pressed my back against the wall and moved his mouth away from mine. Sasuke's lips followed my chin line until they found my neck. My eyes swam behind my eyelids, and my body shuddered as goose bumps arose on my skin. I needed to stop him, but I really didn't want to. He nipped at my neck a couple of time, and slid my collar down to find the top of my shoulder.

This was really happening, and I was in no state to stop it. I gasped lightly, trying to hold back pleasured sighs. I didn't want him to know how much my body wanted this, because my mind would surely fail if I did. He breathed softly on my neck and I realized his hands were on my hips, one wandering to my back. He pressed my body against mine, and I let out a soft moan. He pulled his face away from my collar bone for a moment to grin at me.

By now my face was burning. I looked at him, and I felt sick. Not the butterflies kind of sick, just this random kind of sick. This kind of sickness that felt better than butterflies. It was a sickness that reminded me that I was doing something completely, and totally, wrong. He kissed me again and was steady slipping his fingers under the spaces where my shirt had come untucked.

_Riiiing. Riiiing_.

My phone! Oh thank God!

I magically regained control of my hand and frantically pulled the phone out of my pocket. Sasuke didn't pull his lips away from mine, or even his tongue out of my mouth. I open the phone and the bright light shown in his face.

"Mm, mm-hello?" I said as I pushed him away from my face finally. His body still pinned me against the door. He directed his mouth to my neck. Nipping, and sucking again.

"Ino? Where the hell are you?" Temari was on the other line. Of course.

"I'm…. " I had to pause for a moment, to fight back a powerful moan that was building up in me. Goose bumps again. "At the office." I said with a loud obviously exasperated sigh.

"Why didn't you call and tell me?" She demanded, oblivious. "I came home early, are you going to be back in time for the club?"

Sasuke's hand had made its way under my shirt, and I could feel his warm touch on my bare skin. "Yea-yea." I said breathily.

"Alright, well hurry up, what could the tyrant want from you at this time of night, anyways, it's almost nine!"

"I gotta go!" I cried into the mic.

"Alright geez."

"Busy, busy." My voice cracked into the mic as Sasuke's lips found the middle of my chest. He was holding me against him, with his arms wrapped all the way around me now.

"Later."

I closed the phone shut and it clacked to the floor. I wrapped my arms around Sasuke's neck. My whole entire body tingled with guilt as he began to unbuckle my belt. I couldn't let this go any further. I couldn't have sex with Sasuke! Mr. Hachiu! He was my boss! This was wrong! But God, it felt so good.

"Mr. Hachiu!" I cried my voice cracking with pleasure. "Mr. Hachiu stop." I demanded. He didn't stop. I started pushing him again, but he only gripped tighter. "Sasuke! Stop!" I found the strength to push him off me. "We can't be doing this." I said softly and nervously. "I'm sorry, please don't fire me." I said grabbing my phone and running out the office door.

Back down the hall, down the elevator, and down through the lobby. I raced back home. My skirt was crooked, my mascara was smudged, my hair was messy, and my neck was killing me. I made my way up to my apartment and found Temari about to open the door.

"Oh I thought you were the take-out guy." She laughed softly. "What the hell happened to you?" She obviously had noticed my appearance quite quickly.

"I got mugged." I lied, frantically. I couldn't tell her about this. My eyes were bugging. I was a horrible liar, but Temari was ditzy.

"What?!" She demanded. "Are you ok, did they take anything?"

"Just the two fives and a twenty I had in my purse." I said nervously rushing to the bathroom to wash my face.

"Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine. I need to shower before the club; I'll be out in the minute." I slammed the door in her face halfway through my sentence. I stripped quickly and began vigorously scrubbing the shame off my skin, as fast as I could. It was all out of my hair, and my mouth by the time the steam had settled on the mirror. I got right out, and ran right to my bedroom.

I dressed equally as quickly, but took a few minutes to calm myself down a bit before showing myself to Temari again. When I walked out of my bedroom I was fully clothed and ready for the _Hyoushi_, kind of.

"Alright, food's here. We'll eat and head out."

Ok." I said softly.

---

Soon enough we were back outside of _Hyoushi_ waiting in line, fake ID in hand. I still felt nervous, my mind was still racing.

_What is he fires me because of this? How could he? He did this, not me. He made me kiss him, he wanted me to have sex with him, he put his hand up my shirt. Oh God, but I loved it! I wanted it so much, but I just couldn't do that to Sakura, to Naru-. What? Was I really feeling guilty because of him? I thought I was over this!_

"ID?" The bouncer's voice broke my thought

"Oh, sorry." I said timidly handing him my ID.

"You sure you're twenty-one?" He cocked an eyebrow at me, looking at my ID.

"Of course." I said, my voice cracking. "Do I look like a child?" I snapped.

He cocked both eyebrows at me this time. Shaking his head he handed me back the ID. "You're in." He groaned.

I scurried past him to catch up with Temari who was waiting for me behind the bouncer. "Nicely handled." She grinned at me. My face must have still looked distraught. "Are you sure you're ok?" She prodded.

"I'm fine. Temari!" I threw on a convincing smile. "Let's dance!" I cried grabbing her hand and pulling her to the dance floor. Ah yes, some dancing and then some liquor. This ought to make me forget all about Sasuke, and Naruto, and if I was really lucky, even Kiba!

After a good while on the dance floor, I found myself dancing alone, Temari had surely found a man by now, perhaps Kankuro again. I nervously made my way to the bar, afraid to find Kiba on the other side. It was a risk I was willing to take at this point. I took a seat on the nearest bar stool. I noticed that Kiba was bartending tonight, and I prayed that he wouldn't recognize me, but he did. And he didn't look too pleased about it. Despite our incident, he was a nice guy and he came and helped me.

"Let me guess, boyfriend troubles? Drown them in a White Russian or five?" He said sarcastically, but still somehow flirtingly.

"I did not have five!" I demanded playfully. "And no, actually, celebration tonight: It's over." I grinned.

"That's what you said last time." He smirked at me.

"Actually, I didn't. But this time is for real." My eyes flirted with his.

"Martini to start you off?" He smiled excitedly.

"Yes please." I nodded. Anything to wash the Brandy and Sasuke out of my mouth. In what seemed like mere moments later, I had three Martini Glasses lined up in front of me. I was definitely not tasting Sasuke anymore. Temari appeared at my side once again.

"I see you two are getting along nicely." She said darting to the stool to the right of me. "I'll have one too, please." She nodded at Kiba.

He clinked two empty vodka bottles together. "Sorry, it'll be a minute, I'll be right back."

As soon as the browned haired beauty was out of sight Temari jumped on me. "So? How is it going? Does he want you back? Is he going home with you? Has he kissed you yet?"

"One question at a time, Temari. I've had six of these!"

"There's only three glasses there." She questioned.

"Oh. Haha!" I cackled. "I guess I thought there was six because when I look at them…." I trailed off. "Are you sure there aren't six?"

"Yea…." Temari said softly, she obviously knew I should be cut off, now. "OH MY GOD!" She gasped, I could hear it easily over the music.

"What, what?" I looked around. Nothing threatening was approaching. "What?" I cried.

"What is that?!" She demanded, gaping at my neck.

I covered the nape of my neck with my warm, sweat palm. "Oh it's nothing. I burnt myself."

"With what, a welding wand?!" She gasped. "That's a hickey! Where on Earth did you get a hickey that big? I was gone for like twenty minutes, Ino!"

"No, no. Not him." I hushed her.

"Hello ladies. Martini time." Kiba grinned at us.

"We'll be right back." Temari grabbed my arm and ripped me off the barstool. She dragged me away violently, Kiba looked confused. She cornered me in the bathroom.

"What the hell is going on?" She sounded concerned.

"What?"

"You have a hickey on your neck that is so purple, it's magenta! Even I can't give magenta hickies!"

"Just chill, it's nothing." I looked away. She was sniffing for dirt.

Temari got real close to me. "Did he rape you?"

"What?!" My eyes widened. She knew. "No!"

"The mugger, did he do that to you, is that why it took so long?" She prodded some more.

"No! No! It's nothing like that!" I assured her.

"Then what is? You can tell me." She looked at me with concerned eyes.

I couldn't take it. She was being serious for once in her life, and I couldn't lie to her again. "Temari I wasn't mugged." I said softly. A couple of girls filed into the bathroom, and c few filed out.

"Then what is going on, Ino?" Her voice was so serious. It was almost scary.

I looked around. Any sign of the same Sasuke in this room and these girls would be on me like white on rice. No one could know, not even Temari, but I had to tell her. I leaned in real close, I prayed she couldn't hear my whisper over the muffled bass in the background.

"It was Sasuke…" I whispered.

"Who?" She wasn't into the fashion scene like me.

"It was Mr. Hachiu." I confessed.

"WHAT?" She gasped. "WHAT?" She demanded again. "WHEN? HOW? WHAT HAPPENED?" She was spouting every 'W' question she could fathom.

"Shh. Shh. Be quiet."

"Right…." She took a deep breath. "Alright…. WHAT?"

I clasped my hand over her mouth. "Shut up! People will hear you!"

"Just tell me." She pleaded.

"Not here."

"Home?"

I nodded.

"Now?"

"Later." I nodded.

She nodded in compliance.

The rest of the club scene was a bit of a blur. I didn't bring Kiba home with me, but I did get his number. That was good. But now to face the hard part: Temari the Interrogator.

---

"SPILL." She demanded as soon as the door was shut behind me.

"Temari, really. I don't want to talk about it, it's late, I'm tired…" I tried to get out of it.

"No, you said!" She demanded and pulled me away from my bedroom and into the living room. We plopped down on the big couch. "Come on."

Somewhere between "He called me after we got off the phone" and "And then he kissed me" we made our way into pajamas and were curled up on the floor with all the pillows in the house, and a tub of cookie dough ice cream like a couple of schoolgirls.

"Oh my God!" She squealed. "I can't believe _Sasuke_ wanted to have sex with _you_!"

I blushed. I felt sick again, but this time it was probably the combination of Martini, ice cream, and four-thirty AM making me queasy this time. "Yea, I know." I said softly and coyly.

"So why didn't you do it?"

_Don't say Naruto._ "It's wrong, Temari." I touched the hickey on my neck. "He has a wife, who just so happens to be my hero."

"SO?" She cried.

"So. That would make me a whore." I sneared. _I'm waiting_.

"You lost your virginity before me."

"So! That doesn't make me a whore!" I cried.

"I'm just saying." She coaxed me down.

"Besides, it would be wrong, I knew I would hook up with Na-Kiba again." _Damnit_.

Temari's eye flitted up to mine. "Uh huh?" She said.

_She totally noticed! _"Yea, and that would be really wrong." I nodded.

"I guess so." She dropped her spoon into the empty tub with a thud. "I'm bushed. I have the afternoon shift tomorrow, so at least I can sleep in a little." She smiled. "Not all of us have bosses that want us so much they give us weekends off." She giggled.

"HAHA!" I cackled sarcastically. "Very funny. He likes to spend time with his WIFE on the weekends." I called as she headed toward the kitchen with the trash.

"Whatever." She laughed. "Goodnight. I love you." She kissed me on the forehead.

"Love you too." I sighed making my way to my feet as she headed to her room. "Night." I called tiredly.

What a long day it had been. I had narrowly avoided Naruto for the probably seventh day in a row; gained back control of my feelings for him; almost had sex with my boss and second hero; gotten slightly drunk; eaten a half a gallon of ice cream; and oh yea, fallen again for Naruto. How productive I was. Bleh. Tomorrow had high hopes. Monday however, I was dreading.

* * *

**AN**: Like I said, you can't hold any errors against me. I might get around to fixing them, but until then, take it or leave it. I hope it's not crappy. It's VERY late. lol REVIEW. I think it came out nicely. (: I threw a little twist in there. I hope you liked it, I like writing it. I can't wait to get the next chapter up. REVIEW IF YOU WANT MY ATTENTION & UPDATE. No one else is going to, so it's up to you, asshole. DX


	4. Chapter 4

**WARNING**: This chapter contains adult material. Please note that the rating of this fan fiction has been changed to M. Rated M based on sexual content, violent material, and vulgar language. Proceed with caution.

* * *

Sunday morning, bright and early. Saturday was easy. I sat around the house all day and did pretty much nothing. It was my well deserved break from Friday night, which had been hectic. Even this morning, I swore I could still taste Sasuke in my morning breath. A punishment for doing wrong, I supposed, or at least almost doing wrong. I had stopped him before the situation had gotten too out of hand. I was praying that Sunday would be the end of the world, I wanted more than anything not to have to go to work tomorrow. If I quit, I wouldn't have to see Sasuke, and probably never Naruto again. I could call Kiba and we could live happily ever after or something along those lines.

For a moment I seriously considered quitting, but I remember how much rent was. I just got my first paycheck last Friday, and it was more than two of Temari's plus all her tips. I couldn't do that to her, to us. I loved our apartment and so did she. Temari worked morning on Sunday, so by one o'clock she was home.

"Rough morning. This day care came in for breakfast, it was crazy!" She said pulling an orange soda out of the fridge. I was leaning against the wall. "I've never had to deal with so many screaming kids in my life! Three of us had to handle the orders." She sighed.

"I'm sorry," I said. "But they tipped well, right?"

"Oh yea." She grinned at me. Temari pulled out a ten thousand yen bill. "Oh and this." She then pulled out a five thousand yen bill. "I got this from this really cute guy, and look, there's a number on it." She grinned. "He told me to call him."

"Cool, you know I was thinking about calling Kiba tonight. Maybe going out on a date, for real." I said casually. "Maybe you should call . . ."

"Lee." She nodded.

"Yea, maybe you should call Lee, and we can all four go out. Kind of like a double date." Temari's eyes lit up. "No clubs." I added.

The light died a little. "Oh well, it'll be nice." She smiled softly. She seemed excited, I was too.

I called Kiba soon after that.

---

"Hey Beautiful, I thought you'd never call." He said after I greeted him with a hello.

"Yea. Sorry. I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight. Temari has a date and she wanted us to tag along." I said softly.

"Tag along? Why don't we go somewhere nice, just the two of us?"

I bit my lower lip. "Hmm, that sounds nice too." I was smiling.

"Good, so we'll be alone tonight?" Even his voice was gorgeous, kind of silky.

"Yea." I smiled still.

"How about _Kuusou_?" He suggested.

"Sounds fancy, and expensive." I hesitated.

"I'll buy, I'll buy." He assured me.

"Alright." I smiled again. "You know, this is really sweet of you."

"Anything for you, Beautiful." His voice was so smooth, it was really hard to deny him.

"Thanks." I blushed, even over the phone.

"It's nothing." I could hear the grin in his voice. "I'll pick you up at eight."

"Ok, see you then."

_Click_.

---

I was ready by seven-thirty. Breaking the news to Temari was no fun, but she took it pretty well. Soon enough, Kiba was buzzing on the doorbell.

"Be down in a minute." I called into the mic.

"Goodluck," Temari smiled as I grabbed my purse. "I'll see you when I get home, Lee will be here soon."

"Bye dear, love ya'." I said heading out the door.

I made my way down the stairs and met Kiba at the front door to the building. He hailed a taxi and we road down town, chatting casually. He had his arm around my shoulders, and I was sitting very close to him in the backseat. When we finally go to the restaurant he held the door open for me as we walked in, and he pulled out my chair. He was such a gentleman!

"So Ino, tell me a little about you, I hardly know you." He sipped his wine. The food hadn't arrived yet.

"Well I work for Sakura Kiss, which is a design and modeling collaboration company. I work as the errand girl so it's nothing that big." I shrugged sipping my water. No liquor for me tonight.

"Ah. I love Hachiu's designs." He grinned and pointed to his shoes. They were a pair from one of his recent releases. "Cost me a fortune, but I gotta' look nice." He added.

"Oh, so you're a fashion buff, yourself?" Things were going all too well.

"Well, I guess you could say that. I'm not so much into fashion as I am into looking nice, and expensive." He laughed lightly.

"Speaking of expenses, this must have cost a pretty penny." I snuck it into the conversation.

"Oh no, don't worry about it. I have plenty of money to spend." He assured me.

"But you're only a bartender." I felt a little bad for pointing out his little income.

"Well yea, but that's just for fun. I'm going to med school, which my parents are paying for." He grinned across the table at me.

"Ah, a doctor, are you?"

"Aspiring." He nodded.

"Why the bartending, then?" I was a bit curious.

"Well it's fun. I like mixing drinks, and talking to pretty girls all night, like yourself." He still smirked at me.

"You're so charming."I smiled softly. I set my hand down and he lightly set his on top of mine.

"Why thank you." He smiled warmly.

He was looking right into my eyes. He seemed so perfect suddenly; our first encounter was anything but classy. But this, this was nice, really nice. He was so charming, and promising, how could I ever have considered passing this up? He slipped his fingers underneath mine and now he was holding my hand. His thumb classically caressed the top of my hand. I could feel the pinkness in my cheeks, and the stars in my eyes. This was turning out to be the absolute perfect date.

"Ino." I heard someone hiss as they approached me from behind.

I tore my eyes away from Kiba and turned around to face the unknown summoner. It was Temari! "Temari, what are you doing here?" I sounded alarmed and disgusted.

"Ino I need to talk to you." It sounded urgent.

"Could you excuse me for just one moment?" I turned back to Kiba, I felt so bad about this. He nodded and Temari pulled me down the aisle of tables until we came to the foyer of the restaurant. "Alright, what are you doing here?"

"Lee brought me here. I made sure we didn't disturb you." She assured me.

"Oh yea, some great job you did of that." I snapped. "Interrupting me in the middle of my date." I was a bit perturbed.

"Sorry, but when I was on my way to the bathroom I saw this." She pulled me over to a set of huge French doors, they were cracked slightly.

I peeked between them, in sheer horror. "What?!" I hissed.

Behind the door was a large dining room with twelve or thirteen small round tables on the floor, and a long white table on a platform on the wall opposite of the door. Every seat in the dining room was full, and at the head table there sat Naruto, the blue haired woman, and the red haired man. Naruto sat to the left of the man with the red hair and the bridge piercings, who was sitting to the left of the woman with the blue hair. The red haired man was standing up, toasting, it appeared.

"What?" I whispered. "That can't be right; Naruto is marrying her, not him. What's going on, Temari?" I looked at her frantically.

"No, when I passed by he was toasting the happy couple, had a very nice speech, but the point is: He's single!" She squealed. I started marching away from the scene. "Ino, where are you going?"

"Back to my date, Temari." I sneered at her.

"Oh, right." She followed behind me. She took a seat at her table which was on the other end of the dining room as mine.

I went and sat back with Kiba. Our food had arrived, but he had waited, like a true gentleman. "Sorry about all that." I sincerely meant it. Temari made a big mistake just now. As soon as I was over Naruto, she had to bring him up again.

"It's ok." He smiled at me. Surely that face wouldn't throw me down a flight of stairs, or hit me, or anything. But how could Naruto? He seemed so sweet, like he couldn't hurt a fly.

I shook the thought away and spun my fork into my spaghetti. "Still I didn't expect Temari to be here, I explain to her. I'm really, really sorry." I pleaded.

"No, no. It's fine, really. We're still alone, aren't we?" He smiled softly at me.

I nodded. Kiba seemed so sweet, but I had once thought Naruto was so sweet, maybe I was wrong about Kiba too. I didn't like thinking about it too much, so I did what I knew would work. I noticed out waiter walking down the aisle towards our table. I waved him down.

"Could I get a glass of Brandy?" I asked. "If you don't mind, Kiba." I looked at him sort of asking permission.

"Go right ahead Beautiful." He nodded with a smile. He seemed to always be smiling.

The rest of our date was anything but simple. We finished eating, and then the check came, we left just as Naruto's party was getting out, but I managed to avoid him in the foyer, but that was it. I stood next to Kiba on the sidewalk, he was trying to hail a cab, and I was trying really, really hard to be invisible. To no avail of course. I saw Naruto notice me, and then begin walking towards me. I quickly grabbed Kiba's hand and pulled him closer to me. He looked down at me with a slightly confused look on his face.

"Hey, Ino." Naruto called as he approached us.

Both me and Kiba turned to face him. I held his hand tight, fingers laced, my nails were probably digging into his skin, but I wasn't about to let go. "Oh hi, Naruto." I greeted him smugly.

"Oh, so this guy is Naruto." Kiba cocked an eyebrow at the blond haired man. They seemed to be about the same height, but Kiba seemed to have a buffer build than Naruto. Something else that didn't match up with my recent perception of him.

"Yes, and you are?" He cocked an eyebrow back at Kiba.

I noticed Kiba puffing up and becoming irritated. "He's my date!" I broke the mild silence between them and raised our clasped hand to show Naruto.

"Oh, I see." He sounded shattered.

"Yea." Kiba sounded cocky suddenly. This was a different Kiba than I had seen in the restaurant. But any guy would be like this around his new girl's ex. Well, Naruto wasn't my ex, per say, but he was close enough for Kiba. "Come on Ino, we won't let this guy ruin our date." He wrapped his arm around me, but I couldn't help staring at Naruto. He wouldn't look at me, just past me.

"I'll see you around, maybe, Ino." He said softly. "Bye."

A cab was hailed and Kiba let me in. I smiled softly, and convincingly, even though I wasn't very happy at the moment. He slid into the seat next to me, and kissed me gently on the lips. I kissed him back, but only because the taxi was already moving. He was a really good guy, so I didn't understand why I wanted to get away from him. He was sweet, and kind to me. Not to mention he had money, and he always would. But that was no reason to stay with him. Not that we were official or anything like that, but things were going so nicely, I figured we would be soon.

---

We went back to Kiba's apartment. It was really nice. It was huge, twice the size of mine, like a loft or something. Surely Daddy's money was paying for it. He was only a bartender after all. He walked through the dark area and found a remote on the coffee table. He pushed a button and the entire apartment seemed to light up.

"Welcome to my humble abougou." He smiled over at me. I was still standing by the door, half in awe of the sheer massiveness of his home. The ceilings were so high. "Come and sit with me." He plopped down on his pretty black leather couch and patted the spot next to him.

I timidly moved away from the door and took a seat next to him. He wrapped his arm around me again and smiled. I was starting to feel better about this again. I rested my head on his chest again. Almost routinely, he leaned down to kiss me again, and things were back underway as they had been at my apartment.

This time when he pulled me to my feet, I protested. "I don't know Kiba. I don't really want to sleep with you just yet." I said pulling my hand out of his grasp softly. He let go of my hand but then he grabbed my arm, a little firmer this time.

"We've already done it, once. It's fine." He grinned.

"I was drunk. I don't want things to be like this, yet." I tried to shake him loose. "I really like you." I admitted timidly.

Kiba smiled down at me and pulled me close to him. Pressing his body against mine. "If you really like me, then why not give me what I want?" He posed.

"Because it's our first date, and I don't want that." I demanded feeling irritated. A little bretayed even. He seemed so sweet, but he was beginning to sound slimey.

"C'mon." He groaned. "Just a little something, we don't have to have sex, you could just do a little somethin' somethin' for me." He grinned down at me evilly. His eyes were dirty, and his voice was sultry.

"No! I will not do that!" I cried trying to push him away from me. I was beginning to feel like Friday night was repeating itself all over again, except this time was worse. Sasuke stopped, but Kiba didn't seem like he was going to.

"It'll be fine, you'll love it." He grinned still holding me tighter. This was the disadvantage to him being so much 'buffer' than Naruto. If I needed to I probably could manage to fight Naruto off, but not this guy. "You'll probably enjoy it more than me." He said forcing me back down to the couch.

"Kiba, I'm not going to do that!" I was practically screaming. On the outside I was saying it to him, but on the inside I was trying to convince myself of that fact.

I tried to stand up but he pushed me down. At least Sasuke had the courtesy to let me enjoy it all. He started unzipping his pants as I hit the couch cushion this was all happening way too fast. He didn't say a word as he pulled his penis out, but he stared down at me with an evil light in his eyes as he stuck it in my face. I turned my head away from him as the tears started to flood my eyes. They stained my cheeks just as he grabbed my chin and forced me to face him, still staring into my eye he spoke.

"What aren't you going to do?" He demanded. I clasped my lips so tight, and took in a deep, long breath through my nose, dead set on not 'talking dirty' to him. "Sat it." He said, his voice sounded harsh, and scary. He strength was suddenly so real.

"I'm not …" I stopped feel another rush of tears burn my cheeks, and dripping onto his fingers which were still on my chin. "I'm not going to…" I could bring myself to say it. "Suck you." I felt my dinner creeping up my throat. It sounded more disgusting than it was probably going to taste.

"What? What are you going to suck?" His voice was like knives, it cut my heart every time he spoke.

I fought back the spaghetti fighting its way into my mouth. "Your…." I swallowed hard. It wasn't sure if I wanted to swallow the word or my guts. "Your d-dick." I said feeling filthy just thinking about it.

"Oh, but you are going to."

"No!" I cried thrusting my chin out of his grip. I jumped up, and he grabbed me. He tried to push me back down, but I somehow managed to break free from his arms. I grabbed my little purse with what little cash I had in it, and my cell phone and I ran.

I ran all the way down the hall and toward the elevator, and I ran out the door and down the street until I came to a phone booth. I had my phone with me, but at this point it wasn't going to do me any good. When I made my way out of the phone booth I waved down a cad. One finally stopped. I jumped in quickly and shut the door violently behind me.

"Where to?" The man in the front seat asked.

"This address, please." I said handing him a page out a phone book with an address circled on it in thick pink lipstick that matched the shade I was wearing. I sniffled back my runny nose and wiped the running mascara off my face; only managing to smear it in a sweep upward towards my hairline. I must've looked like hell. Even the cab driver was curious.

"You ok, Miss?" He said, sounding more obligated to ask than concerned.

"Yea. I'm fine. Just take me the address." I reminded him.

He nodded and pulled away from the curb.

---

After probably forty minutes of driving we found our way to the address circled on the page. It was a big building that looked a little like mine, only nicer. There was s doorman, and everything. I paid the man with the last bills I had, and I stepped out of the cab, thanking him on my way out.

"No problem. " He assured me. I must have left him a big tip.

He lived on the opposite side of the Fashion District as me, and on the completely opposite side of the city as Kiba. Which was a good thing, I was miles and miles away from him, and it felt good.

The doorman stopped me as I walked up to the big glass doors leading to the inside of the building. "Who are you seeing?"

"Mr. Kumuzai." I said. My voice was all crackly. I still felt scared. I couldn't look men in the eyes anymore. I didn't even look up at the doorman.

"Alright." He nodded and held the door open for me.

I eventually found my way up to his apartment door. I stood there staring at the gold numbers 968 on the smooth black painted door. It matched all the others. I gripped the paper in my hand, and sniffed once again. I knocked on the door and waited for a moment. No one answered, I swallowed hard. I wanted more than anything for him to be there. I knocked one more time and just as I was about to leave I heard him calling.

"Hold on! I'll be there in just a second!" I had never been so happy to hear his voice. It was like a saving grace, exactly what I needed right now. But even so, I couldn't bring myself to smile. He flung open the door, counting some bills in his hand. "What was the check, again?" He said looking back up at me. I felt my face grow twisted and the tears start pouring out of my eyes again. I was scared, and happy, and confused, and angry all at the same time. "Ino?" He whispered, his voice sounded soft and concerned. "What are you doing here?"

I didn't look up at him when he called my name, but when he begged for the reason behind my presence tilted my head up at him slightly. The tears must have been shimmering on my skin, because I could almost see his heart drop.

"Are you ok?" He grabbed my shoulders.

"Yea…" I sniffed again. "I guess so." I finally looked up at him all the way. Looking into his eyes killed me. My face became scrunched again and I buried my face in his shoulder and cried.

He wrapped his arms around me for a second, and then he pushed me off of his just far enough to be able to look at my face. "What on Earth happened?" He said softly. "Oh God, where are my manners, please come in." He pulled me inside gently and showed me to his couch.

I sat down, and he scurried to the kitchen. "Can I have some water?" I called.

"Yea, of course. Hold on."

I looked around his apartment. It was small, very small, enough for one single guy. But even if it was small, it was extremely high end, and very masculine. The walls were a dark wood, and the floor matched. There was a rug on the floor, it was white, and spotlessly clean. His couches were black and leather, a lot like Kiba's only the backs were low, and resemble more of a bench than a seat back. His entire back wall was a window, and there were black curtains from ceiling to floor, not drawn. His TV was on, but I wasn't watching it. I was amazed at the cleanliness of his house, oh and I was still pretty shaken by the hour's past event.

"Here you go." He said placing a glass of cold water in my hand. He took a seat on the matching chair catty-corner to the cushion I was sitting on. He looked at me concerned. "Please tell me what's wrong." He begged. "I can't think of any logical reason you might be here, how did you even find me?" So many questions.

"I found you in the phonebook." I smiled a little taking a sip of my water and set it down on the end table to the left of me.

"How sleuthy of you." He smiled a little himself. "Now tell me, what's wrong?"

I swallowed hard. I supposed the whole ordeal wasn't as bad as I seemed to think it was. Maybe it was, I was almost raped, after all. "Well, after we left _Kuusou_ we went back to Kiba's place." I looked up at him. "My date." I said feeling the words heavy in my throat. I was so played by him.

"Yes?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"When we got there… He tried to make me…." I didn't want to have to say it again. It tasted bad just thinking about it. I looked away from him, his eyes were so soft and inviting, but I still was having a hard time looking at him considering he was a man. Suddenly all the men in my life seemed evil. Even Naruto if his reputation truly proceeded him. Remembering what I had come to believe of him, I felt uncomfortable.

"I'm so sorry." He said. "I'm here for you."He set his hand on the arm of the couch. I was beginning to feel like I could truly trust him.

"Thank you so much." I said quietly.

"But can I ask you something?"

I nodded.

"Why did you come. . . Here?" He asked me gently. "Not that I mind, I just don't know why you would come here and not to Temari. Who I thought was your boyfriend in the first place, but I guess I was confused…." He trailed off.

"Well actually Temari is a girl, and she is my best friend. I live with her." I admitted.

"Ah, I see." He said, I noticed his cheeks pinken slightly. "Well then I am left even more baffled. Why wouldn't you go to her side for this matter? I'm simply curious." That may be, but I could tell he was fishing for information.

To be honest, I had never given it any thought. Why did I come to him? It seemed like natural instinct to go to him, and by pass Temari. But for the absolute life of me I could not fathom why that was. "I don't know." I said honestly. "I think I just felt like…. Like I owed you. I treated you so horribly, and I ignored you for that, for him. I actually stopped talking to you so I go pursue him." My heart crumbled again.

"I love your honesty." He smiled a little.

"Thanks…" I sighed.

"But you don't owe me anything." He said humbly.

"Of course I do!" I protested. "I was so rude to you, and for no good reason."

"For your own safety, I'm sure." He practically cut me off.

"Wha-what do you mean?" I played dumb.

"Come on Ino, the office you work in…." He started. "I'm sure you've heard about it by now." He looked ashamed.

"Oh, Naruto…" I said feeling guilty. "Well, is it true?" I asked, I needed to know.

"You won't believe me, no one does. Why would they? The sweet, angel, innocent goddess of beauty is on the stand, and her finger is pointed at me. The whole world thinks I'm a wife beater. How can I not be?" I could hear the disgust in his voice.

"I believe you." I said softly.

"I just loved her so much…." His voice was heavy with pain. "She'd leave me in the morning, and not come back until late at night, and I always knew what was going on. I knew Sasuke didn't need her there all day for his designs. It's like when the money started flowing, they didn't care about anything after that. They didn't care about me, they didn't care about Sasuke's designs, they didn't care about us. It was only her. The princess.

"She always got what she wanted, and the second I tried to take it away from her, she freaked. She couldn't stand that I had caught her, and when I tried to make her end it… It was very late, and we had been fighting all night. I was so angry about the situation all the time, and I always held it in, but I wasn;t having it tonight. She was leaving me, for real this time, she swore. I was so mad at her, I loved her with every fiber of my being, but she didn't care. I wasn't the artist, I didn't have talent, and when Sasuke dumped my dead weight, I'd have no money, she promised. I was going nowhere, I was a loser, and she was too good for me. I hated her even more, because no matter what she said to me all the way down the stairs I loved her the entire time.

"We finally reached the front door to the building, there was a single flight of stone stairs leading to the sidewalk outside the building, and when we reached them I grabbed her arm. I begged her to stay; I told her I would do anything. I told her I loved her. She simply spat at me, like I was trash. I was a loser, she reminded me one more time. She tried to pull herself away from me, but I wouldn't let go of her arm. That was the only legitimate bruise I gave her.

"She yanked away from me one more time, and when she did she fell. She fell and she tumbled down those stairs. I watched, and I think….. I think maybe a little tiny part of my wanted to see her fall. But still. I ran down the stairs to help her, but she pulled herself to her feet on her own, and somehow she managed to run away. She ran away from me like I pushed her, like my fucking fingerprints were on her back. I hated her more than I had ever hated anyone in my whole life, but still…… I STILL loved her."

His voice cracked at the end of his story. I could see the tears welling up in his eyes behind the stressed blond hairs hanging in his eyes. He pushed them back with his with his left hand and leaned back on his chair. At some point during the story he had hunched himself up with his elbows on his knees. I couldn't speak, the whole thing was so intense.

"She went to him, of course she did, where else would she go?" He sighed. "Sasuke came to my apartment, personally and fired me inevitably ending our lifelong friendship. A year later he launched Sakura Kiss and has never looked back. "He looked up at me, wiping the tears out of his eyes before they had a chance to fall.

"Wow." I honestly didn't know what else to say.

"I know….." He said looking away from me. Directly in front of him, probably at nothing.

"Well I don't believe Sakura could give a more convincing performance if she tried." I tried to lighten the mood.

Naruto stood up next to the chair to stretch. "She never was good at acting. Modeling was her only talent. In high school her monologues sucked, but she was always voted most beautiful in class." He sighed a little. "Her damned beauty always saved her ass, because it's the only thing she has." I could almost feel the hate in his voice. He basically spat the words at me.

"So you work for Neji, now." I pushed the conversation in another direction.

"No, no, no. Not more about me. I turned this whole thing into me, and it should be about you." I could tell that he felt guilty. "I'm sorry Ino. I talk way too much." He plopped back down in the chair.

I shook my head. So many thoughts were running through my head right now. Things were flying around like how horrible Sakura and Sasuke had been to Naruto; how bad I felt for him because they completely betrayed him; how sweet he was for caring so much about my well being; how I felt special because he was willing to share the honest to God truth with me, even the bad parts; how amazingly, awkwardly adorable he was; how I was such an ass for even letting the rumors sway me for even a second; but mostly how much I had never wanted to kiss anyone so bad before in my entire life.

"Please take the subject off of m- "He started. I jumped up from my seat and put my hands around his face and forced hit lips into mine.

I kissed him, and I mean I kissed him hard. Harder and more passionately than I had ever kissed anyone, ever, and probably ever could. I felt him tense under my lips; his posture suddenly straightened and I felt him melt back into place. He kissed me back for a minute, and then pulled away. Not completely, and not violently, but enough or me to get the message that he wanted me to stop. I took a step back.

"What are you doing?" He asked sounding seriously confused, he came to his feet.

"I just…." I felt my face begin to burn. "I wanted you." I admitted. "I still want you." I wrapped my arms around his neck and attempted to kiss him again.

"No Ino," Hee denied me and pushed me away, gently. "You're just feeling vulnerable. After a night like you've had you need to relax. You can't go jumping into the arms of the first man you think you can trust."

He was almost on target with that one. I wanted him because I knew I could trust him, and that was exactly it. I KNEW I could trust him. Not only that but I wanted him; I wanted to be with him; I wanted him to love me like he had loved Sakura. I knew he was what I wanted.

"No, Naruto. Please." I touched his arm.

He backed away from me. "No, I won't be your rebound." He said firmly. "If you want to be with me, you have to wait until you are truly able minded enough to decide so." He grabbed my shoulders softly, but still firmly.

"But I know I want to be with you. I know right now. I want it right now." My voice was turning frantic.

He smiled down at me a little. "Shh, relax. I'll have you," He said and kissed me on the forehead. "But I just want you to be ok first. You had a rough night." He reminded me.

I nodded compliantly.

"I will sleep on the couch, you go to my bedroom. There are clean clothes in there; you can wear one of my shirts to bed." He directed me toward his room.

I nodded again and started walking towards his room.

"Ino hold on." He called.

I still silently turned to face him.

He grabbed me gently and kissed me again. On the lips this time, almost like I had kissed him, but let needy and more accepting. It was soft, and loving. It was just what I needed. He was just what I needed.

"Goodnight." He said putting his forehead to mine. I looked into his eyes. They looked happy, they looked warm and loving.

I smiled a little, but I couldn't speak still. I walked through the doorway to his room, and shut the door behind me.

After washing up in the master bath, and finding a comfy shirt to sleep in I laid down on his neatly made bed. I looked around his room. It was as clean and beautifully put together as his living room had been. I noticed that his closet door was open, so I stood back up and waltzed over to it. He had a lot of nice button up shirt hanging in it, and about six different sweater vests. It was his normal attire. Every time I had seen him, he was wearing one. First button unbuttoned, sleeves messily rolled up, black leather belt, khaki pants, and nice black dress shoes. There were also multiple pairs of khaki pants hanging up neatly, a line of black shoes at the bottom. He was such a routine, cleanly man. I recognized a khaki suit coat hanging on the far left side of the closet. I recognized it from the time I had met him in his office with Neji. It was the only time I had ever seen him out of his normal uniform. He looked very dapper in it.

I wandered away from his closet and then to his dresser that shared a wall with the bathroom door. There were a few pictures of him sitting up in frames in front of his mirror. There was one of him looking very young. His arm was swung around a pink haired girl, and both their teeth gleamed with a set of braces. I could only assume it was Sakura. They had been in love, it seemed, from a very young age. There was another picture with Naruto in it. He was standing between a blond haired man that looked almost exactly like him, and a woman with ridiculously long red hair. He was wearing a cap and gown. At Under the frame was a short gold ribbon, it read ' Class of '99 '. I almost gasped at the date on the ribbon. By the time Naruto was graduating, I was just in the sixth grade! I had never noticed that he was so much older than me, by what appeared to be five or six years even.

I plopped back down on the edge of his bed and thought about what it was going to be like to date an older man. I grinned a little on the inside and scooted back to the middle of the bed where I planned on sleeping. I checked my cell phone one more time before I went to bed, no messages from Temari. That was odd, it was nearly three in the morning by now, she must have assumed I was staying with Kiba. The name now tasted bitter, even just to think it made me sick. I set the phone on the end table nearest to me. I pulled the covers out from under me and laid down beneath them, shutting off the lamp when I was comfortable. I left the bathroom light on, I was still uneasy about being aloen, and sleeping after my ordeal with Kiba. I closed my eyes, and I was out.

---

I woke up the next morning to Naruto waking me gently. He shook me softly as he called my name.

"Ino." He said. "It's about six-forty-five. I wasn't sure when you needed so I thought this would be good enough."

I turned over to face him. I was still sleepy. I had hardly enough sleep, but I had to work. "Oh thank you Naruto." I whispered smiling up at him.

"I made you some waffles. They're from the freezer, because I mostly eat out a lot." He admitted. "Sorry…"

"Oh no, it's ok." I sat up as he set the plate in my lap. "Thank you so much." I was a little nervous to look him in the eye, I felt like a little school girl, all shy. He was sitting on the bed next to me. "You're so sweet."

"No, I'm just a god guy. You need to be treated like a lady, right now. I'll be glad to do it." He smiled at me warmly.

I could only smile.

I ate my waffles and put my date clothes back on so I could wear them to work. They would have to do. Luckily I had my essential make up in my purse I'd brought on the date. By the time I was ready for work, I had some time to spare. I walked into the kitchen, Naruto was sitting at his bar over a bowl of Coaco Pebbles. He turned and watched me make my way to the sink with a glass in hand. I took a sip of my water, and smiled over the bar at him.

"You look beautiful this morning." He said sounding absent minded, as if he had been stunned by my beauty. Which was a ridiculous thought, considering he was once with Naruho Sakura, the most beautiful woman on the planet. I noticed him look away from me, like he had said something he hadn't meant to.

"I look horrible right now." I said coyly as I set my glass down on the counter.

"No, no. Really." He admitted. "You look perfect." He smiled at me.

"Thank you." I smiled feeling myself blush again. At this rate, my face was going to turn completely red, and never turn back. "For everything you did last night, and this morning."

He nodded. "Just doin' what's right."

"You didn't have to do all that." I said.

"No, but I wanted to… For you." He said honestly.

My heart melted a little bit. I walked around the counter, and when I reached him on the other side of the bar I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck and rested them on his shoulders. He stiffened up again, and once again melted back into place. He touched my right forearm with his right hand and sighed.

"Thank you, again." I whispered and kissed him on the cheek.

We left the apartment at the same time. We waited on the sidewalk together for a cab, and when he hailed on for me, I worked up to guts to kiss him on the lips again. Quickly, but still gently this time.

"I'll see you sometime, soon." I said as I got in. "Call me some time since I left you my number." I smiled.

He nodded and shut the door for me. The cab pulled away and I watched him hail another one for himself. He road two cars behind me until mine stopped at my building. I paid the man with some money Naruto had lent me. He was so sweet. When I walked inside the building I remembered the awkward scene from Friday. I prayed I still had a job here.

I walked into the office, right on time, possibly a few minutes early. Things looked as they normally did. Mr. Hachiu's door was shut, and Hinata was sitting at her desk, clackity-clacking away on her keyboard as usual. I liked this, things looked like they were going to be alright.

"Mr. Hachiu wants to see you." Hinata said without looking up from her computer screen. I was never sure what she was doing on the computer, but it always sounded important.

My law clenched and I felt stiff. I by passed my desk and went directly into his office without setting my purse down. I could only hope he had an immediate delivery for me to make, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

"Take a seat." He said without swiveling to face me.

I obediently sat in the high backed chair opposite his desk. "Yessir?" I said timidly.

"About the other night…" He turned and looked at me.

_Oh God_. This was not what I wanted to talk about right now. "Yessir, what about it?" I played along.

He looked around the room for a moment, and then stood. He waltzed around and stood next to me as he had on our last encounter. Just as before he placed his hand on my cheek, and caressed it. I looked away from him just enough to remove his hand from my face.

"I quite enjoyed it, and was disappointed that I was not allowed to finish it." He admitted.

"Mr. Hachiu –"

"Sasuke."He reminded me.

"Sasuke…" I started. "You are married. You are my boss. We can't finish it." I said feeling nervous, afraid to lose my job.

He pulled his hand away from the vicinity of my face, and slid it into his coat pocket. "I see." He said softly. "That's all for now, then." He nodded walking back around his desk and sat in his chair. I turned to leave, but I was stopped. "Oh wait, Ino." He called. "I need you to pick up an order from… Neji." He said the name with much disgust.

I nodded and made my way to _Neji_. Business as usual.

---

That night, I returned home, and Temari bombarded me with questions about my date.

"I don't want to talk about the date." I said sternly.

"Why the hell not? You stayed the night with him."

I knew I couldn't avoid the bad part if I wanted to tell her the best part. I sighed. "It's a looong story."

I sat on the couch reviewing it all to her, every disturbing detail, until I came to the news I wanted to tell her. It took almost two hours to get through the whole thing. She had to question me after every sentence. It was just Temari, I was used to it by now.

"Oh my God. That's a lot to take in at once." She sighed after I finished relaying her of my night with Naruto.

"I know, imagine me living it!" I cried. "First, I was nearly raped by the scum of the Earth, and then I found myself at Naruto's apartment, and THEN I learned the whole story behind Sakura's drama with Naruto, and then…" I stopped feeling butterflies rise in my stomach.

"And then what?" Temari prodded some more.

"And then I kissed him." I said meekly. My voice all airy with fluster and excitement.

"Really?" She squealed with joy.

"Yea." I nodded biting my bottom lip. Temari had the tendency of acting like a school girl, but I was truly feeling like one. I grinned to myself remembering it all.

"And then what?" She sounded eager to hear the rest.

"He denied me. He told me he didn't want to be my rebound, and he sent me to bed in his bed while he slept on the couch." I was still grinning.

"Oh..." Temari calmed and frowned at me.

"No, no. That was good." I assured her. "He wants to be with me. He just wanted to make sure I was sure I wanted to be with him."

"And you do, right?"

"Of course I do!" I cried.

"That's great!" She squealed again.

_Riiing. Riiing_.

My phone started going off.

"Oh! It's him! Shh." I said. Temari leaned closed to me to listen to both ends of the conversation. Were surely were a bunch of school girls.

"Ino?" His voice called through the other line.

"Yea?"

"Oh hey, you told me to call you some time…" He started. "I think guys aren't supposed to call until three days later, or something, but I just couldn't wait. I wanted to know if maybe, you wanted to… I don't know see a movie, have dinner, something, anything?" He seemed to be begging. He was still so awkwardly adorable, I loved it.

"Sure. Yea. Why don't you come to my place, we can order in and watch a movie here." I replied. My voice was full of excitement. I really felt like a teenager again.

"Alright, great."I could hear the smile in his voice. "I'll be there soon."

"Ok." I smiled myself. "Bye, Naruto." I added.

"Bye." He said.

_Click_.

I thought about it while I had the time between Temari's bombardment, that was probably the only goodbye I ever got when hanging up with someone. Soon enough, Naruto was on my door step, he had a huge paper bag filled with Chinese food, enough for all three of us. He was a true gentleman after all. He wanted to include Temari in our little date.

We sat next to each other on the big couch and Temari popped in the movie. It was something scary, the letters were written in blood. This promised gore. I was a little irritated because I could tell Temari was setting me up for a scare. I didn't stress it. A good ten minutes into the movie, Naruto actually pulled the whole yawn and stretch move. I smiled at him, and cuddled right up to him. He leaned his cheek on my head, and held me tight. I was too wrapped up in the perfectness of this moment to notice the bloody scene on the screen; I assumed Naruto felt the same considering he didn't jump at all when one of the characters' head got cut off.

After the movie, Naruto went home. He kindly gave us the leftovers of the Chinese food. He kissed me goodnight passionately, but not in a lusty way. I knew at this point it was definitely official. I went to bed on cloud nine that night.

---

The next couple of months progressed smoothly and rather routinely. As our relationship grew, Naruto and I got slightly more intimate, but only slightly and nothing more. Slightly more meaning instead of being coy and shy around each other we started become more comfortable around each other.

We started acting a lot less like high school students and a lot more like a real adult couple. I was quite ready for the transition. I was so excited around the time of our one month anniversary. It was a silly little celebration, something resembling what a teenage couple could do, but our one year anniversary was forever and day away. I found myself growing excited because I was almost sure we were finally going to… At a lack of better terminology, do it. I had wanted to for so long, but I understood that Naruto wanted to wait. Which was odd, sometimes I felt like I was the immature sex crazed one in the relationship, something more like a guy. Naruto insisted her had dated plenty of times and never found any pleasure in having sex early in the relationship because it always drove things into the ground so quickly. He said he wanted to take things slow and be a little old fashioned for once. I couldn't argue because it was very sweet.

The night before our anniversary was a typical scene. We were at his place for the night, just a quiet night at home, as it often was. He had moved his coffee table into the hallway and we were sitting in his tiny living room floor watching some late night trash TV. We were having the usual casual conversation when it happened.

"What, do I have to wait until we get married to have sex with you?" I groaned.

"No, I won't make you wait that long." He grinned over at me.

"Well then when?" I begged biting a chunk out of my pizza crust.

"We have our whole lives, Ino. Don't get ahead of yourself." He reminded me.

"The rest of our lives? What is that supposed to mean?"

"As in, we don't have to wait for the honeymoon, but we don't have to rush it, you know?" He put his hand on mine.

"The honeymoon? I was just kidding about the married thing." I laughed taking another bite of my crust.

"Well maybe, but I really think I want to marry you." He smiled at me warmly. "Some day." He added.

My jaw stopped moving and I swallowed suddenly. I began hacking up my pizza.

"Ino, are you ok?" Naruto rubbed my back.

"I'm fine." I coughed lightly finally swallowing my half chewed pizza crust.

"What happened? What you don't want to marry me?" He laughed a little.

"Well, not yet!" I cried taking a large gulp of my orange soda to clear my throat.

"I know." He laughed again. "I did say someday."

I nodded. He hadn't even had sex yet and he was already hearing wedding bells. See what I meant about I felt like the man in the relationship? Things had started looking up for all of us. The collaboration fashion show between Neji and Sakura Kiss was long over. I was paying a lot less business visits to _Neji_. And in turn I had to spend a lot more time with Naruto outside of work, this I liked.

Something else that was looking up about work life was Mr. Hachiu, or rather _Sasuke_. He hadn't cornered me or anything since the last time he tried weeks and weeks ago. I was glad to see his little interest had cleared up, because I was not about to explain either Sasuke nor Naruto to one another. Mr. Hachiu might fire for fraternizing with the ' enemy ', and Naruto might actually kill him. I wasn't looking forward to a job hunt, or a funeral. Not to say I didn't catch him with his door open more often, or his feel his eyes on my back whenever I left his office. I was so confused about the whole thing. Why on Earth would he find interest in me when he was married to the most beautiful woman in the world?

Naruto's cousin's wedding had also been a hit. Thinking back on it I remember I had caught the bouquet and the thought simply gave me chills after the conversation I had just had with Naruto.

On the home stead, Temari was even a happier gal. She was never the type to be unhappy, but she was in some weird way happier than before now. She stumbled across Kankuro, again. He was happy to have found, and last I heard they were in love. How cute, right? I surely dug it because this meant I needed to spend fewer nights alone with her, which I didn't really mind them in the first place. But now that we had semi-serious relationships we didn't have to go out fishing for guys in new clubs. No way in hell were we returning to _Hyoushi_ not after the whole Kiba thing. She found Kankuro in one of the other clubs we visited, I with my date, and her looking for one. They seemed to hit it off right from the start. I loved them now, they were so adorable, and Kankuro was a pretty good guy. I was really happy for her.

I was so excited about the future these days. I wasn't one hundred percent sure I wanted to marry Naruto, just yet. But I was seriously considering it. Like he said, we had our whole lives, no need to get ahead of ourselves.

---

I loved the fact that our anniversary landed on a Friday. This allowed me to spend the night at Naruto's house without having to worry about waking up early the next morning for work. I had decided that tonight was the night. Nothing in the world was about to stop me from sleeping with Naruto. Not even Naruto.

I went to his apartment right after work. I got off an hour and half before him, but by this point he had given me a key. I took advantage of this fact tonight. It was six o'clock and he wasn't going to get home until probably eight or so if it all worked out. I had bought a two dozen candles at this specialty shop on my lunch break. I managed to get out of the quiz Hinata gave me about the _God awful candles that were stinking up the office_ without mentioning Naruto's name. She almost asked, but I had to do another delivery, and just in time.

I set them all up around his bedroom. Taking on the role of sex crazed, pants wearing, man once again I ran out very quickly to buy enough roses to sprinkle around the room, and lead him to the bedroom. Luckily there was a flower shop just a block away. Before I had realized it, it was seven-thirty and time for me to change into the sexy nightgown Temari had lent me.

I ran to the master bath and stripped quickly; bra, panties, everything was gone. I slid the silky black nightgown over my head, and I had to admit I did NOT like the feeling of it rubbing against my nipples, but anything for Naruto; anything to get laid, FINALLY! I pulled my hair out of its normal ponytailed state and shook it out. It was shorter than it had been, shoulder length now, with layers. I hoped Naruto liked this sexy, messy look it was taking on.

I heard Naruto slip his key into the lock and made a mad dash for the bed. I hopped in and struck a sexy pose. I heard him approaching the room slowly, probably stalled with confusion pertaining to the rose petals. He followed them obediently and I found him standing in the door frame of his room. He looked more awed at my display of lights and flowers than interested in me, but when his eyes fell on me lying in his bed like pork on a platter for a pack of wolves he got the hint. A grin spread across his face when his eyes met mine.

"Hey." He said.

"Don't talk." I said coming to my feet and walking toward him. "You always get all tongue tied." I took his hand and pushed him down on the bed.

"I'm sorry, I thought you thought it was cute." His voice was muffled by his sweater vest which I was pulling over his head at this point.

"Shh." I ordered softly, as I proceeded to unbutton his crisp white, long sleeved shirt.

"This is all very elaborate." He said pulling the shirt off his shoulders for me. I could tell he wanted it, now.

"I wanted it to be special. It seemed like you wanted it to be special, or you wouldn't have made me wait so long." I said, hoping my voice sounded less innocent and more sultry.

"I did." He smiled up at me. I pushed him back a little, and he scooted up to the top of the bed allowing me to crawl on top of him. "Thank you." He added just before I kissed him.

I grinned down at him, so excited for the moment. I kissed him again, and again, and finally our tongue met in my mouth. I still hung over him, so with my mouth on his, I used one hand to prop myself up, and the other to fiddle with his belt. He quickly got the hint and began undoing it for me. When the belt was off I took the liberty of unbuttoning his pants, pausing from his kiss to focus on it. I could already feel that he was ready, but I wanted more. Once I had the pants were off, I swung my leg around him, and took a seat on his lap.

I bent down with my hands on his chest, kissing his neck, nipping, biting; anything to get a literal rise out of him. I felt him becoming more and more hard, and this fact helped me along. I felt his right hand leave my hip and wander up my side; they soon made their way to my breast. A squeeze for me, a bite for him, and soon enough we were ready to throw down.

He laid me down underneath him and pulled my nightgown over my head, I proceeded to pull down his boxers, they were the only things left of his body. He leaned down to kiss me. Once on the forehead, once on the lips, on the side of my face, on the top of my neck, on the nape of my neck, me collarbone, my chest, and then he stopped. He looked at me one more time, kissed me one more time, and I felt him move inside of me.

I closed my eyes feeling blissful suddenly. He moved in and then out very slowly, and evenly. I looked up at him, I needed to see his face right now. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and laid back allowing him to truly take control. He held his eyes closed for a moment until his face changed and they opened and looked into mine. A smile spread across his face and then across mine. I leaned up just enough to kiss him again. He pushed himself in and out of me again and again until he finally allowed him pace to quicken, his force also strengthened. I opened my mouth to let out a heated sigh. I could almost feel him get a little harder inside me. I could tell her enjoyed the noise I made.

"I love you." He said between breaths and thrusts.

"I love you too." I moaned softly.

Again, it was apparent he liked what I had to audibly express. I then, without much effort (if you know what I mean), let out another soft moan. He quickened a little more, and this made it a little easier to make some noise. I had wanted this so bad, and I was so, so, so happy it was finally happening. I moaned a few more times, and I soon found myself beneath a breathless Naruto. I was losing more and more control of my voice with everything thrust he had to deliver.

We stayed in this routine for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was probably only fifteen minutes. I soon found myself on top of him. He must have grown tired at some point, and I must have had a random urge for control. I supported my upper body with my hands on his chest, and rode him. I soon felt my body beginning to tense, but it was so slowly doing it. I could tell that this was not going to be like any other time, this was going to be real, and amazing. A small fire was building in my lower tummy; it was kindling itself at a creeping speed. But I loved it. I noticed that Naruto was thrusting up into me and that I wasn't working alone. I leaned down and rested myself against him, still riding. He wrapped his arms around me, and held me tight against him. I breathed deep exasperated breaths into his ear. The fire inside me was growing, bigger and bigger by the minute. I started moaning audible words, perhaps rather sounds still, but with particular annunciation. I felt his breath quicken on my skin, and I knew he was ready.

Just knowing this allowed my body to explode in a shaking glory. The fire in me was raging, and I could conceal it anymore. My whole body shook, I lost all control of my vocal cords – although they did stray far – I panted into his ear, and I could feel him pulsing inside me. I didn't want the moment to end. I had never felt so close him, to anyone ever. I knew at this moment that I was absolutely, positively, madly in love with Naruto.

I cried his name as the moment began to end and I gasped collapsing on his chest. We seemed to breathe in unison. I flipped over and laid down in the bed next to him. I closed my eyes for a moment and caught my breath, and then turned my head to look at him. My chest rose and fell violently a few good times before he opened his eyes and looked at me. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I could tell by the sweat on his face, and the gleam in his eyes that he truly loved me, too. I rolled over and rested my head on his chest. He wrapped his arm around me and held me tight.

"I love you so much, Ino." He said between slowing gasps for air.

I couldn't answer, I was exhausted. I passed right out there in his arms.

* * *

**AN**: Wow. That one was pretty intense. I think it turned out pretty good, if I don't say so myself. I extremely excited to see the reviewsd for this one, so please send them in. I have everything planned out through the end of this story, so please keep the hits and reviews rolling in. I may suffer from a little writer's block now and then, but I promise if you keep sending me love I will keep posting the chapters. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and it took me ALL DAY. Review it or I'll be pissed. You should have a lot to say about it this time. lol I really look forward to posting the next chapter. As always, please don't hold the errors against me, I am far too lazy to go and fix them right away. But I worked on this FOREVER so I feel like there shouldn't be A WHOLE FUCKIN' LOT of them. DX I could be wrong. Please, my beloved readers, enjoy the chapters to come.


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